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Gloucestershire County Championships and the Gloucestershire CC League race 3

A very windy Bushy Norwood Field at the University of Bath saw several Gloucester AC runners winning medals in the County Cross Country Championships which were held within the third Gloucestershire CC League and in conjunction with the counties of Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire.

First to race and gain a bronze medal was Molly Holland, part of the middle-distance young athletes training group in the U13girls 2.8k race with 10th place in 11:29. Owen Wood 31st (12:04) raced the boys event over the same distance with Johannes Mundy 33rd, not far behind in 12:12 for 33rd.

The U11G saw Bethany Harris, who’s focused on Sports Hall over the last month, came 20th (8:36) over 1.9k.

Running next the U11boys completed a team with Ben Jones gaining Silver in 4th (7:03,), Laurie Mundy 46th (8:24), Archer Hastings 50th (8:45), Etienne Saunders 52nd (8:46).

Callum Yates led the Under 15s home gaining 19th place  in 13:27 over the two lap course. As boys and girls raced together Livvi Avery was next home gaining county gold in 13:54. An improving Ethan Norris finished 15th boy with 14:05 and Evie Avery out sprinted training partner Lily Sienna-Hodgson for 7th place in 14:36 with Lily 2 seconds behind. Joe Cruise, running with an illness, completed the team as 40th boy in the same time as training partner Bella Smith, 17th girl in 15:34. Lilliah Wood completed the girls team with 38th place (26:55). A great result for the U15 girls and boys teams who both gained a silver medal in the Gloucestershire County Championships

Arthur Nield showed he was on the way back with 20th U17boys finishing strongly in 20th place with 20:29 over 5.7k.

The senior women and men over 65 raced 6.6k with over 3k of that being uphill. First home with a very pleasing run was Amber Spackman (45th; 28:08) followed by Grace Hinga  in 64th and a bronze medal W55 winner and Emma Stalberg 98th 32:24 and 2 minutes faster than last year over the same course. M75 Arthur Daley moved slowly through the field to complete the 3 laps in 34;37 for 117th place and first M75.

Charlie Worsfold ran a strong race to win the county Gold U20 medal in 23rd place with 35:20. Next home was Anthony Cruise gaining the U20 silver as the wind picked up (45th: 37:02). Andy Noakes was only Gloucester AC senior man coming 119 in 43:03 over the 10.3k course.

Gloucester athletics coach Bob Purcell is BBC West Sports' Unsung Hero

Bob Purcell has won the prestigious BBC award, click on the above for more details

Saturday 16th saw members of Gloucester Athletic Club’s middle distance young athlete training squad  racing at far flung venues.

Three girls represented East Wales at  Dolerw Park in Newtown Mid-Wales Molly Holland raced the U13 Girls 2520m event coming 8th in 9:19 only 24 seconds behind the winner. In the U15G 3420m race Lilly Sienna-Hodgson  came 5th with 14:00 and Bella Smith’s 15:24  gave her 25th place.

Anthony and Joe Cruise travelled to Alton Towers Staffordshire to race a 5k which was rather like the park in that it had lots of ups and downs. Anthony raced to 9th place in a PB of 17:18. Joe completed the undulating course in 19:19 taking 65 seconds off his PB.

Lead coach Arthur Daley (Men 75) raced for England Masters in Belfast. The first race was for  65+ men and women.  With the first 800 of the  3 lap 6k course being uphill he planned a steady start but after 400m finding himself alongside his strongest England M75 team mate and feeling good decided to push on up the last incline. Using the long downhill on each lap he  over took many runners of different age groups finishing first scorer for the team in 30:31 and 39th in the race.

On Thursday members of Gloucester Athletic Club’s middle distance young athlete squad  performed well at the City Secondary Schools Cross Country Trials at Plock Court with everyone being selected to represent the City District in the  County Championship.

Junior Boy Harry Overthrow vied for 3rd place for much of his  3k race coming in a fast finishing 4th.

Intermediate Boys Arthur Nield, Joe Cruise and Ethan Norris represented 3 different schools. Arthur and Joe only compete against each other in schools’ age groups and ran most of the 2 laps of Plock Court with Joe a few metres behind the older Arthur finish for  2nd and 3rd in that order. Ethan ran a steady first lap completing the flat course in 9th.

Ruth Brook whose senior Girls’ race over 2.57 miles was at late notice combined with the Intermediate Boys dominated the girls’ race showing speed and  high cadence at the start and finish for 1st place.

Anthony Cruise raced two very large laps. For the first mile he tracked James Agombar (Sir Thomas Rich/Cheltenham H) then pulled up alongside him only to lead from over the final mile. His mile splits were with a few seconds of each other showing how Anthony is learning the skill of even paced racing. Despite a late challenge he used his 800m speed to remain in front.

Gloucester Athletic Club’s middle distance young athlete squad  were busy competing in both Cardiff and Cheltenham on Saturday.

Molly Holland, representing Chepstow H, her cross country club, ran in the Gwent League U13G coming 11th in 10:39.

Livvi and Evie Avery competed in the British Athletics Cross Challenge U15G race run in conjunction with the Gwent League with Livvi coming 7th (11:14) having had a strong start, sustaining pace throughout and accelerating as in her race plan over the last 400m. Evie used a different tactic with a more graduated start then consistently moving through the field to finish 20th (12:04) and just in front of Lily Sienna-Hodgson.

Lily also moved though the field during the race was given a time of 12:06 and 7th place in the league. Both she and Bella Smith who ran a even paced run for 30th in 13:00 raced for  Chepstow Harriers in this competition.

Anthony Cruise U20 man represented the club in his first Birmingham Cross Country League race held at Pitville Park. His very even paced race saw him move through the  senior field to finish in the mid 20s (results not yet available) and second Gloucester runner. 

Coach for all 6 runners Arthur Daley raced the M65+ 6.4k event held within the senior women’s race finishing 17th in 30:12 and first M75.

Gloucester AC athletes Evie and Livvi Avery,  competed at St. Edwards School  in the Cheltenham district schools cross country trials on Wednesday, 16th October

Both boys and girls years of 10/11 started together with the boys being put in front of the girls  Livvi and Evie raced to  move quickly  away from the pack and were mainly unhindered by the  lots of pushing and shoving as people battled for space.

The one full lap and one long lap  course was very muddy, and had the infamous steep Ashley Manor hill.

Livvi, despite battling a cold, managed to break away from the other girls and take the lead early on, increasing the lead at the bottom of the hill on the first lap. She finished in first place in the girls category and 3rd overall using a strong finishing kick. 

Evie ran a strong race and despite it being her first cross-country race of the season ran one of her best paced and tactically sound races  . She closed the gap with 2nd place on the last half of the last lap and battled with her friend Lucy Hillary (Western Tempo) , up until the last 400m, coming in 3rd girl.

The first cross country race of the season saw many of the young middle distance athletes in the Gloucester AC squad competing in the Gloucestershire Cross County League at Yate.

Racing over a very compact course which gave excellent spectator viewing Molly Holland  ran a strong race for 3rd place (14:25)  in the U13 girls 3k event.

The 5k race for U15 boys and girls saw Joe Cruise  cruise home for another 3rd place in 16:04 whilst Ethan Norris was only 24 seconds behind for 8th boy position. Livvi Avery felt she started a little too fast so suffered in the middle but rallied in the last half mile to move from  30m behind in 3rd place  to a well clear second girl in 16:44. Lily Sienna-Hodgson in her first year in the age group came in 4th in 16:55 and Bella Smith ran strongly for 10th in 18:42.

The next race over 5.8k saw a range of age groups competing. 

Arthur Nield in his first race as an U17th was 9th overall and 8th U17 man in 22:58. Ruth Brook making a welcome return to racing but not yet fully fit was the squad’s first woman to finish as 4th U17 in 26:59 followed by senior lady Amber Spackman in 27:12 for 12th senior.  Squad coach Arthur Daley who also acted as clerk of the course and starter raced as a M75 taking first (and last) place in that age group in 30:47.

Charlie Worsfold ran a well paced 9k race moving through the field to finish in  10 and 3rd under 20 man in 31:37 with Anthony Cruise  8th U20M in 34:11. Squad coach Martin Brook was 127th and 12M50 in 42:51.

The final track race of the 2024 season saw several Gloucester AC Middle Distance athletes  competing in a very windy Avon league at Yate on Sunday.

U15 Boys Harry Overthrow and Ethan Norris raced 1500m running the firs two laps in very even 70 per lap pace.  Ethan then using his usual fast finish pulled away for 7th place in 4:55.49 with Harry in 5:03.94.

Molly Holland ran a well paced U13G 1200m coming 4th in 4:11 taking 18 seconds off her personal best.

Three U15 girls competed in the 1500m.  Evie Avery raced her most tactically strong race of the season in very windy conditions gaining second place in 5:04.77. Lily Sienna-Hodgson raced a fast first lap then settled into a steadier pace for 4th  in 5:12.3 again a PB. Bella Smith used different tactics with a slower first 400m then a strong second lap for 6th in 5:32.21.

Barney Golledge (U17M) showed good tactical awareness in the open 3000m starting off at near PB pace then slowing and using an older and taller competitor as a wind break until the last 600m when he accealerated to the same pace for 11:15.25.

Arthur Nield (U17M) despite being ill in the lead up to the race experimented with the 400m running very strongly into the wind over the first 200m for 4th place with 57.94.

The previous day Middle Distance coach Arthur Daley raced in the English Masters CC selection race at Betley Court Farm near Crewe. Racing in the M75 age group he finished 53rd overall but second M75 in 24:04 gaining him selection for the England team in the Home International in Belfast in November.

Callum Yates (U15 boy) had a trio of 4th places; 300m with 43.35, 100m in 12.59 and  hammer throw in 17:08.

Together with Harry Overthrow and Ethan Norris from the group and Theo Dennett  the U15B relay team was first in the 4 x 300m in 3:00. Middle distance group members Molly Holland and Bella combined with club members Rayna Iheme-Madukairo and Ruby King to come 5th in the U15G  4 x 100m relay.

After an afternoon of thunderstorms and very heavy rain in Gloucester the Friday before the relays there were fears that the event would be called off. But Sutton Coldfield escaped the worst of the storms and the racing was on. One men's and one women's teams left the rain of Gloucester to make the trip to Sutton Park to race the best in the region over 6 and 4 stages respectively. 

With last minute changes to the team and the running order the women started their race at 1330. The 4 legs were run over 4.33km on a undulating course.  First out was Grace Hinga, who was keen to lead the team out, who covered the distance in 18:26. Grace handed over to Nicola Waters, a late replacement in the team. Nicola was keen to get her leg out of the way early to get to Kingsholm in time for the kick off of the rugby. Nicola finished her run in 23:53.

Due out next was Emma Stalberg, but disaster struck during her warm up as she felt something go ping in her calf. The team made a quick decision to switch Amber Spackman from 4th to 3rd and for Emma to run 4th (to ensure Amber got a run in case Emma was forced to abandon her stage). Due to the late change in running order Amber missed the change over from our 2nd runner by about 10 seconds. Not letting this change her race, Amber showed maturity in not panicking and not trying to go out too fast. She ran a very respectable time of 19:09 (including the 10 seconds due to the delayed change over).

Not wanting to let the team down and despite her injury Emma chose to run the 4th stage. Emma went out a conservative pace and worked her way into the race, running the leg in 19:04 bringing the team home with a total time of 1:20:42 for 43rd overall. Despite the injury her time was 90 seconds faster than 2023 and a 3 minute improvement on her 2022 time showing what consistent training can do.

Moving to the men, who raced over 5.88km in a course broadly the same as the women, but with the addition of a out and back at the jamboree stone.

Stage 1 was run Charlie Worsfold. In a week where Charlie's training was curtailed by illness he managed to run the team's fasted leg of the day clocking an impressive 19:14. Owen Parry, who was initially due to run 3rd, stepped up to 2nd shortly before the race started. Owen was held by the official for a short period after Worsfold had finished, adding seconds to his and the team's time. Owen raced around the course in an official time of 20:31.

Charlie Coles, who delayed moving himself to university by a day to compete in this race, took over in 3rd. With his easy running style belying his pace came home in 20:37. Next out was Luke Hine. Defying conventional wisdom of not trying anything new on race day, Hine ran in shoes purchased at the event. The unfamiliar shoes suited him and he ran a solid 20:38. In 5th place was Andy Noakes, running his first Autumn Relays. With consistent pacing Andy finished his leg in 23:19. The final runner was the team manager, James Walters, who ran a 22:05. The men's team finished in 40th position with a time of 2:06:04.

Team manager Walters said "Thank you to everyone who made the trip to Sutton Coldfield for the race, especially those who changed their plans at short notice. I am glad that the promised thunderstorms came to nothing more than a few claps of thunder and a heavy shower".

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Four members of the Senior Distance training group braved the stormy weather on Sunday morning to take part in the Oldbury 10 mile race.

Although the worst of the rain had eased a little before the 10:30am start, the roads were still soaked with large puddles. The course itself is very flat (you could say too flat!) and the camber, and broken surface, of the county lanes is not the best surface.

However, the temperature was fine, and very little wind, so guess few other excuses not to run well!

All four had a time of around 1hr 15mins as a target to get near, or better.

At the gun (or hooter), it was Steve Robbins who set off the quickest with a series of 7 min miles for the first 3 miles. Christina Horak and Dave Gresswell followed at a slightly more conservative 7:20 place, with Robert Buckley at around 7:30 pace as he tried to get his ultra distance legs up to speed.

After halfway, Chrissie started to pull away from coach Gresswell, with some 7:15 miles, while Gresswell slipped back to 7:30 pace.

Meanwhile Steve was slowing a bit, and Rob was speeding up. It was all coming together!

By 8 miles Chrissie had a good 300m lead on Gresswell, and was on the heals of Steve for a short time, before passing him, and leading the Glos AC pack.

Gresswell started to slow badly at 8 miles, while Rob continued to speed up, and was now not far behind.

With one mile to go (which felt very long), all four pressed on, with Chrissie finishing first for the club in a time of 1 hr 12:36. Steve was not far behind, finishing his first race in 3 years, in a time of 1 hr 13:27.

Gresswell was next back, and despite slowing, managed to squeeze in under his target time with 1hr 14:52.

Rob had Gresswell in his sights for the last mile, but ran out of road to catch him, and finished in 1hr 15:49.

So a good morning out, and just about finished the race before the bad weather took hold again!

Most of Gloucester Athletic Club’s Young Middle Distance Athletes focused on training over the weekend.

A couple travelled to the ECCU National Cross Country Championships at Weston Park, near Telford. First to race over a hilly 3k course was Callum Yates (U13B) who came 46th in 11:45.

Livvi Avery (U15G) maintained her position throughout  the twisting 4k course to finish 25th in 16:11.

Emma Stalberg was the only senior to race 8k in 42:03 for 126th place showing a great improvement over the last 12 months.

Group coach Arthur Daley took part in his first 5000m race on the track since 2021 recording 24:10:56 the bronze medal in the British Masters 5000m M70 championship at Birmingham University track.

Gloucester AC Young Middle Distance athletes were active throughout this week.

The first meeting was the Gloucester Open Meeting on Tuesday. U15 B Callum Yates ran a strong 600m in 1.37.1 for 6th place in the fastest heat. Ethan Norris (U15) ran a tactically sound race in his first 600m in the following race winning after a fast finish in 1:45.3 whilst Harry Overthrow (U15) who had lead for 500m achieved a personal best by 5 seconds with second place in 1:46.4.

 Phoebe Golledge (U15G) showed her improved running form to lead the third 600m race but was overtaken by Lucas Clarke-Savage again in the last 150m for him to finish first in 1:58.8 - a PB  - and Phoebe second in 1:59.5. Belle Stoneman ran a solid race for third in 2:04.4

Lucas also came fourth in the U15B Javelin with24.92m.

Arthur Nield (U17M)  and Livvi Avery (U15G) ran close to each other in the first mile race; both showed good tactics with Arthur pulling away over the last 300m to finish in 5:00 and Livvi first female finisher in 5:04.7. Ebie Avery (U15) ran a remarkably well and even paced race for 5;32.Both Arthur and Livvi won the Ron Freeman Memorial Shield as fastest GAC miler with Livvi picking up the highest age graded award with a  score of 91%.

The second mile race saw group coach Martin Brook (M50) achieve 5:57.4 mile with a very fast last lap giving him a 2 second personal best.

Anthony Cruise (U20M) ran his first 3000m race with great sense of pacing coming third in 9:11.0. His brother Joe (U15) also ran his first 3000m and aided by the pacer won the second 3000m event in 10:04.6.

Three of the group represented the club in the final Midland league meeting at Birmingham University on Saturday.

Seren Jones (W20) ran her first track race of this season having focused on her A levels.  Understandably nervous she ran two steady laps of the 1500m  in 82 secs then accelerated to finish in 5:02. Anthony Cruise (M20) ran in the men’s 1500m running fairly even paced laps for 4:10 just outside his PB. Group coach Arthur Daley (M70) ran in the same race – his first track race in over two years – to finish in 6:58.83 and placing him 25th in the national age group rankings.

Charlie Coles (U20) was another runner returning to racing after A levels producing a very even paced 3000m with a tussle for 4th place giving him a very fast 300m finish for a PB in 9:20.

The final meeting of the week saw athletes competing in the Avon League at the Blackbridge track on Sunday.

New member Molly Holland (U13G)  took the early lead in the  800 finishing 3rd in a Personal Best of 2:44.3.

A trio of U15B raced their 800 in very humid conditions. Joes Cruise was second in 2:17.7, Harry Overthrow  6th in 2:26.1 and a fast finishing Ethan Norris one place behind in 2:27.8.

Barney Golledge raced  a mixed age group 3000m showing nice pace judgement whilst producing very even laps for 11:06.

Several senior , master and young athletes successfully raced the Haresfield 5k promoted by Gloucester Athletic Club.

First to Gloucester runner to finish was Charlie Worsfold with a 25 second PB of 16:03 in 4th race place and County U20M Champion. Two places behind was M40 Owen Parry taking the county silver medal in 16:34, a 7 second PB. In 21st place was Ryan Hearn with 18:24 setting a new PB in his first road 5k. Charles Wu was 30th in 18:45 taking 22 seconds off his PB.  Michael Hall, whose Pelican Inn donated prizes finished  38th in 19:13 achieving a 1 second improvement in his PB.

Emma Stalberg W45 raced 21:34 for 67th place showing consistency being only a few seconds slower than her race in Bath on the previous Wednesday.  Amber Spackman running her first open road race set a PB with 22:04 (72nd) and first Under 20 woman so gaining a gold medal in the county championship.

Chris Davis was 82nd in83rd place with 23:01 and Lucas Clark-Savage in his first road race was first U15B and county champion with 26:17 for 106th place.

Livvi Avery raced a very windy 3000m in the Charnwood Open meeting gaining 2nd place with 10:39.82 only 0.5 of a second behind her PB.

Gloucester Athletic Club’s U20 man Anthony Cruise had the unexpected but thrilling experience of winning a local road race.

Anthony had entered the Westonbirt House 10k hoping for competition to take him to a fast time but as competitors were walked to the start line by the race pacers he realised that there seemed to be no one else who looked likely to match him for pace.

Leading from the start he was joined for the first 3 miles by Jack Derrick from Westbury Harriers. Having never been in the lead in a road race before Anthony has a range of novel decisions to make; he decided to increase cadence and pace uphill after the 5k drink station and pulled away to win by almost 2 minutes in 36:05.2 a few seconds behind his PB.

Gloucester Athletic Club’s Middle Distance Young Athletes were out in force in the Cheltenham Harriers open meeting on Wednesday 17th July.

First to run was Anthony Cruise (U20M) in the A heat. Despite being ill for the two days before the race running the first and third 200s faster than the others he achieved a 2 second person best for 3rd place in 2:02.00.

Heat B saw Joe Cruise (U15B), who had an issue with his shoes, finish in 2:18.91.

Livvi Avery  raced her first 800m for 2 years  leading form the start she set a fast pace  with her last lap faster that her first. She finished in 2: 16.16 taking 19 seconds off her personal best and placing her 25th in the UK.

Ethan Norris placed 4th in 2:22.3. Evie Avery after a fast first 200 ran an even paced race to finish in 6th 2:23.73

Heat D saw 3 of the training group racing. Arthur Nield (U17M) started very quickly and closing rapidly on the winner showed potential for the shorter middle distance races and possibly 400m. He was closely followed by a more confident Callum Yates. All three athletes set personal bests. Arthur’s and Callum’s being 8 seconds faster and Harry a large 5 secs.

Coach Martin Brook raced in heat E running very even paced 200m splits for 2:39.45. As a M50 that places him in the top 100 in the UK.

Phoebe Golledge (U15G) and Lucas Clarke-Savage (U15B) raced in heat G with both athletics setting a steady initial pace. Both set personal bests with Lucas accelerating over the last 200 taking 11 seconds off (2:41.32) and Phoebe 2 for 2:45.58.

Barney Golledge (U17M) ran his first 5000m and achieved a steady paced race overtaking in the last 600m for 19:19.03.

Olivia Avery from the middle distance group of Gloucester Athletic Club represented the Couty Schools Association in the English School AA junior girls 1500m championships in the Alexander Stadium Birmingham on Friday. Showing her excellent pace judgement she remained towards the back of the 13 strong field for the first 300m passing that point in near her target time.  Livvi then commenced her favourite tactic of “hunting the competitors down”.

With just over two laps to go she was 30m behind the lead group of 9 and she increased her cadence and lengthened her stride to  join the group at the bell. With 300m to go Livvi started to overtake 4 runners only to be baulked by a girl pulling out in front of her on the 200m mark. Despite having been pushed and loosing her rhythm Livvi ran the last 200m in 36s to finish 6th  with new PB by nearly 3 seconds of 4:39.38.

Members of the group competed for the club in the Midland Track and Field League at Yate on Sunday. Amber Spackman was the first of the group to compete. Running fairly evenly paced laps she finished second in 2:33.98 only half a second behind her personal best and then later in the meeting ran 400m in 66 seconds and completed the second leg of the 4 x 400 mixed relay A team.

Charlie Worsfold raced the men’s 800m in 2:01.52 again gaining second place in the last 100m. Although initially entered in the 1500m succumbed to team spirit and ran as B String to easily finish in 4:34.

Anthony Cruise was the A string runner for the 1500m and raced tactically well never being out of the first four and power over the last 200m to over take 2 Yate athletes finishing in 4:09.8. Despite never having raced 400m he started the first leg of the A 4 x 400m mixed relay and brought the team home in a superb 54.81 seconds.

Gloucester AC middle distance young athletes raced at the first Cheltenham Midsummer open race meeting performing well with good tactical decisions.

First to run was Callum Yates (U15B) in running strongly and tactically taking the lead with 200m to go to win in 1:34.31, a PB by 9 seconds. Harry Overthrow (U15B) raced in the next heat leading for most of the race, with good form to set his PB of 1:51.31; a time that suggests he should take seconds off his 800m PB.

Phoebe Golledge (U15G) ran in the next heat and quickly discarded her race plan to take the lead as the initial pace was too slow for the time she wanted. Although overtaken after 300m she rallied in the final 100 coming a close second place in  1:56.30.   setting her PB.

Lucas Clark- Savage (U15B)  and Belle Stoneman (U15G) ran in the final heat. They took the lead with Lucas – only 5 weeks into the sport – showing much improved form winning in 2:00.48 which suggests he also can improve his 800m PB by  a lot. Belle ran strongly for second place in 2:02.87 also pointing towards much faster 800m PB.

Lucas also came third in the javelin with 18:13 and raced 1500m coming seventh in 5:53.82.

Arthur Nield (U17M) raced the second heat of the 1500m producing very even paced laps giving  a PB of 4:38.52 in  fourth.  Evie Avery (U15G)competed in the same heat running the longer distance rather than her usual 800m to create a PB in 4:59.72 and taking the lead over the group she had been track at the 300m point to make a long run for fifth  place.

Young athletes recovering from A level exams lead the  Gloucester AC team home in the Gloucester 10k.

Charlie Worsfold lead his second 10k ever out of Gloucester Park but then settled to  a steady 5:20 mile pace until getting stitch at 3k. Remaining in third place he returned to the park to put in a very fast burst to retain his position finishing in 34:34 taking 90 seconds off his PB set in the same event last year.

The second A level student to finish, Charlie Coles also set  a PB in his second 10k. His 35:34 – 7th place -took a massif 2:45 from the time also set in the Gloucester 10k last year.

Ryan Hearn finished in  39:34 for 29th position and took an even larger 8:06 off his only other 10k which was also last year’s Gloucester 10k. Michael Hall ran 40:12 (32nd) just missing out on setting a fourth successive PB.

Chrissie Horak ran a victorious 42:06, her fastest time on this course,  to finish first lady whilst Dave Gresswell who ran a lot of the race alongside Chrissie finished  56th in 42:13.

Chris Nield, running with a tight feeling hamstring finished in 45:36 for position 106 and Nick Bishop ran 49:06 in 109th place. Chris Davis was 206th in 50:06.

Both Harriet Akerman and Libby Andrews - who usually run shorter distances on the track - finished in 71:05 for 280th and 282nd paces.

Duke of Edinburgh Awards events and illness depleted the Middle Distance runners squad at the final YDL meeting at Yate on Saturday.

Harry Overthrow ran into 6th place in the U15B 800m taking 3 seconds off his Power of 10 time and matching that achieved in several schools’ events.  Lucas Clark-Savage removed almost 10 seconds on his previous and first 800m time for 5th in the B race with 2:50.34.

Both boys then showed excellent team spirit by competing in events they haven’t been trained for. Harry ran the U15B 300m using his endurance strength to take 3rd place in 43.92. Middle distance squad member Callum Yates who also trains with Justin Smith’s sprint group ran the A  race for 3rd in 41.14.  Callum also showed excellent team spirit throwing the hammer for 4th place with 14.49 and setting a PB in the 200m.  

Harry also competed in the long jump coming 7th with 3.68m. Lucas was not far off that distance taking 4th B string in 3.35. Lucas also put the 4k shot taking 3rd place with 7.70m.

The squad would love to see new members join their Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday training session.

The club's  Middle Distance athletes  competed for their Schools District in the Gloucestershire Schools AA Track Championships.

Evie Avery (Inter Girl) raced 300m powering away in the final 100m as in her race plan winning the final in a new PB of 43.8. Callum Yates (Inter boy) also raced 300m winning his heat in 39.7 – making the mark to represent the county in the SW Schools Championship  and then coming second in the final.

Callum also raced the 800m with 2:24.9. The same race saw Joe Cruise snatch 3rd place in a PB of 2:11.4  and Ethan Norris just behind in 2:20.3 taking 10 seconds off his PB.

Joe’s brother Anthony lead the 1500m senior boys for two and three quarter laps following his race plan for pace but then a massive surge from Isaac Henderson (Cheltenham) saw Anthony slip to third (4:16.5 – a new PB) but holding off a fast finishing Charlie Worsfield (4:17.7) . Charlie Coles finished in 4:24.3.

Livvy Avery had a definite plan for the inter girls 1500m starting off at 4:40 and leading the field for all of the race. Challenged by one runner for the first 300m she gradually extended the gap to convincingly create  a new PB of 4:42.0.

On Sunday two of the squad competed for the club in the Avon League at Yate. Harry Overthrow holding off a challenge in the last 20m came 5th in his 800m race (2:33.89, a new PB ) and Lucas Clark-Savage in his first race for the club 10th in his 800m in 3:01.26.

Gloucester AC Middle Distance U15 Girls Livvi and Evvie Avery travelled to Millfield School on Saturday for the British Milers Club meeting.

A feature of these races is that every race is paced and both girls were placed in races that would provide the challenge for which they were looking.

Evvie raced first showing improved pace judgement. The pacer was expected to complete a 68 second first lap but Evvie allowed the field to move away  recognising that that 30 second for the first 200 was too fast. During the second lap she benefitted from her improved speed endurance closing the gaps and taking a place for 2:23.67, her third fastest ever time.

Livvi had chosen this meeting so that unlike her previous outings on the track this year she had closer competition. With most runners in her 1500m race having a  faster PB she responded well to this passing 300m in her target time of 54 seconds and then sustaining a good rhythm for the next two laps. With the final 300m to she improved her speed taking two places to finish in 4:43.1 and meeting her target of an England Athletics 1500m Championship qualifying time.

Gloucester Athletic Club's Middle Distance Young Athlete's, showing strong individual performances, contributed to the team finishing 4th in the first Youth Development Match at Newport on Saturday .

First to compete was Evie Avery in the U15G 800m. Running a well paced race Evie was well behind the rest of the field at 200m but then, using her own phrase, started hunting down the athletes to finish second out of the seven athletes and with 2:26.6 was 4 seconds clear of third place.

Next to compete was Callum Yates in the U15B 800m. Callum ran a very fast first lap contributing to a slower second lap but still achieved a PB by 6 hundredths but beating last season’s out door PB by almost 3 seconds.

Olivia Avery dominated the U15G 1500m. She had set her aim at achieving the English Schools’ AA Championship qualifying time which she did with ease. Her 4:45.2 put her three seconds inside the mark and 130m (30 sec) ahead of the second placed runner.

Joe Cruise and Ethan Norris raced in the following U15B 1500 both achieving personal bests.  Joe ran just behind the eventual winner for most of the race clocking 4:39.2nin second place ; Ethan ran a steadier race taking 10 seconds off his PB for 4:54.5.

Callum helped the 4 x 100m U15B relay team to second place; Olivia and Evie ran in the 4 x 300 U15G relay  where Evie’s final surge on the last leg closed a 30m gap for 5th place. Joe and Ethan helped the 4 x 15B 300m relay gain 3rd position.

Gloucester AC U15 girls, Evie and Olivia Avery travelled to the open meeting at Nuneaton on Sunday The gale force winds from storm Kathleen denied them the opportunity to get near last season’s personal bests  but it was a useful opportunity to revise middle distance race tactics.

Evie raced first in 800m After a fast first 200m she completed the first lap in  70 seconds then slowed running into the gale force winds but accelerating in the final 200 to finish in 2:29.57.

After waiting 3 hrs Olivia raced 1500m. Placed in the fastest heat she tucked in behind a pair of runners which sheltered her from the wind. After a very fast 300m the group then slowed reaching 700m in 2:35. Despite the wind and lactate acidosis Olivia then picked up the pace running PB pace for the last two laps finishing in 5:3.99.

Several of Gloucester AC’s Young Athletes represented Gloucestershire on Saturday in the Inter-counties Cross Country Championship. Charlie Coles  finished 97th keeping his effort the same he speeded up on the many  downhills  in the 8k race  for 26:07. Charlie was the first runner to finish for the county.

Arthur Nield and Barney Golledge raced the U15 Boys 4k event. Both athletes using the same steady running tactic to move through the field as runners in front tire. They also swapped positions frequently with Arthur  finishing 210th in  14:26 ( 5th in the county team) and Barney 222 in 14:31

Anthony Cruise raced the U17 Men and finished 3rd in the county team with  183rd . Pushing up the hills Anthony ran the  6k in 20:05 overtaking several runners in the finishing straight.

Callum Yates gained experience in racing in a packed and high quality field . Although suffering from a cold he finished 215th in  12:13.

The last two Gloucester AC runners Olivia Avery and Evie Avery raced the U15G event. Although in the first year of this age group Olivia raced hard for the whole 4k  for 63rd  (15:31) and first scorer for the county.  Evie Avery tracked her sister for the first lap then dropped a few seconds suffering from stitch but was still third scorer for the county in 123rd 16:09.

Next Saturday many of the GAC athletes will be racing for the County Schools Association in the ESAA CC Championships at Pontefract.

The photo shows Barney (left) and Arthur (right)

A couple of Gloucester AC’s Young Athletes raced the Bourton 10k on Sunday with senior club members setting them a good example.

Richard De Camps tracked the winner Ed Banks from Birchfield Harriers for the first part of the race  coming in third in 31:53 (31:52) only 10 sec short of his winning time from last year.

Anthony Cruise (U17M) paced well using another runner for speed in the first  3 or 4k then on the return leg of the out and back course  speeded up and overtook many runners to finish in 37:17 (37:12 chip time) and 63rd as the 3rd U18.

Jeremy Mower felt he was returning to good form with his 37:30 (37:27) and 67th as first M55.

Sam Isaacs (U17M) achieved his aim of finishing in under 40 minutes finishing in 39:53  (39:43) for 121st but with  a large blister..

Emma Stalberg  raced in 44:58 (44:50) taking places over the last 200m for 259th as  9th W45 and improving by 12 minutes from 2 years ago and 4 minutes from last year.

Despite many of them having colds Gloucester AC athletes competed successfully in the final Gloucestershire CC League meeting over undulating courses in Cheltenham’s Pittville Park.

Callum Yates (U13B) gained his highest placing of the season in 7th  in 11:02 over the 2.9k course.

This was replicated by Ben Jones (U11B) who raced well to 4th place over 2.2k in 9:15. Hanny Mundy was  the next scorer in 9:55 for  12th place. Jacob Gill was 32nd in 10:44.  The team  gained third place in this race and the bronze medal in the overall league.

U15  Boys and Girls raced over 5k.  Olivia Avery  knew she was capable of being first girls and ran steadily to do that creating a 32 second gap between her and the next girl.

Arthur Nield and Ethan Norris were the next Gloucester AC runners. Having played football in the morning Arthur ran a steady first lap then powered through the field for the second lap to take Ethan who ran strongly throughout. Arthur was17th in 21:10 and Ethan in 18th 2 seconds behind. Joe Cruise ran for 22nd place in 22:19 and Paddy Figgis  finished in 23:29 for 24th place.

The next race over 6.5k saw  great races by people suffering from colds. Anthony Cruise ran much of the first lap in 4 or 5th place but then moved through to lead for all but the last 400m. His excellent second lace in the race also gained him  silver in the league.

Seren Jones also suffered from a cold and like Anthony was doubtful about starting but persisted and using her strong rhythmic style came through for third U20W (29:36) and Gold in the league.

The same race which combines many age groups saw the largest number of Gloucester AC women racing this season.  Following her 45th place in the British University’s CC Championships Millie Porter was the first senior home taking second senior women position in 26:37.

Grace Hinga picked up many places over the second lap for 3rd Over 50 woman (30:59) followed by Anna Midgley  (6th W40) with 31:06. Tenth SW was Bryony Bishop making a welcome return to racing cross country (31:44). Emma Stalberg was 7th W45 in 33:31.

Natalie Marshal taking on her first cross country race was 12th W40 in 36:16. Followed by a fast finishing Abby Brook , 7th W50 in 36:23.  Nicola Waters was the third   W65 in 38:20 with Kirsty Norris  17th W40 in 46:40.

Senior and U20M raced over 9.5k.  Charlie Worsfold was first home for Gloucester AC. His time of 35:17 placed him 4th U20 gaining silver medal in the league. Owen Parry  was second scorer as third M40 in 37:49.  This gave him a bronze medal in the series.

Charlie Coles ran his usual pattern with a fast enough start followed by 4 very even paced miles and a faster final section to bring him in 8th U20M in 38:06. James Walters followed in 11th place in the same age group (40:35) Chris Nield completed his first cross Country season with 6th M45 in 42:19.

Dave Gresswell was 11th M55 in 44:46  Ben Griffiths after tracking Dave on the first lap dropped through a sore knee to finish 16th U20M in 49:46. 

Eight Gloucester AC athletes represented Gloucestershire Schools AA in the SW Schools CC Championship at RNAS Merryweather, Somerset, on Saturday.

Inter-boys were first off with Barney Golledge starting very conservatively but moving through the field for all of the 4750m to finish 49th in 17:13. Arthur Nield suffering from a football injury completed the course steadily - though with faster finish - for 65th in 18:20.

Senior boys ran 6000m over the varied terrain with 2 long laps. Charlie Worsfold was always in the top 10 and finished strongly for 9th in 19:22 whilst Anthony Cruise paced well over taking on the muddy wooded sections for 25th place in 20:31.

Ruth Brook (Intermediate girls) ran two small laps  making 3725m and although in the leading group for the first 2k suffered from a recurrence of a foot injury finishing 12th in14:42. Training partner Seren Jones ran the same course for the senior girls race and ran strongly over the last third to be the first Gloucestershire scorer in a time one second slower than Ruth’s.

Last race was the junior girls over 3000m. Olivia Avery, suffering from a cold, paced very well  having a fast – but not too fast - start that placed in her  the top 8  then moved through the field do that with  a mile to go she was in 4th but being tracked by a Cornish girl. Keeping to her race plan she  pulled away over the last 200m to comfortably take 4th in 10:18. Evie Avery again started fast but not too fast  then used different tactics  to take 6 places over the last lap and finish in 10thwith 10:45.

On Sunday Lois Finan competed in the Welsh Indoor 800m U20 Track Championships. Starting in lane 2 of the final  Lois set a fast pace encouraged by the blistering pace set by the others. At the break she settled into 6th place, holding that for 200m then moved into 5th which she held for 200 after settling into  a steady pace just losing a place on the last bend to come 7th in 2:36.9.

The Middle distance squad are always looking for teenagers keen to develop their middle distance running.

For the first time in many years on Saturday Gloucester AC athletes entered the Midland Counties Cross Country Championships held at Newbold Comyn in Leamington.

Olivia Avery finished the 4k U15 Girls event in 9th. Although tracked by a group for most of the last 2k she focused on closing the gap between her and the runners in front pulling away over the flat and fast finish to be several seconds clear in 16:16. Evie  Avery showing good tactical strength from the start ran possibly her best race of the season to come in 14th in 16:38.

Ruth Brook, only just returning from an ice skating injury, ran a gutsy 5k in the U17 women race. Always in the leading group behind the winner Shaikira King, Ruth dropped cadence along the hill at 1.5 miles but increased it after mile 2 moving into fourth place and was tracked by Megan Taylor of Nots AC. Determinedly, she pulled away over the last half finish section.

Charlie Coles raced the U20 men’s event over 8k. As usual he started what seemed to be conservatively  but ran his fastest mile in the first mile. He then slowed a little but not as much as his competitors taking about 10 places to finish 23rd in 30:26.

Young athlete coach Martin Brook ran in the senior 12k event. He finished the three 4k laps in 62:23 running a very even pace but, using the course well, picked it up in the flat section in the middle of each lap.

Callum Yates ran his first indoor race in the U15B 800m at the London Indoor Games. From the break he settled into third place, passing 400m in 69 seconds and maintained that until 300m then realising that the leading two runners had slowed, overtook them with 300m to go. He quickly established a 6m lead which he kept finishing in a  3 second PB of 2:22.9

Several of Gloucester AC young cross country athletes have been selected to represent Gloucestershire AAA in the Inter-counties Cross Country Championships in Nottingham on 9th  March.

Callum Yates will be racing the U13B 3000m but first off over 8k will be Charlie Worsfold and Charlie Coles in the U20M race at 11:00.

Two U15B will be racing half that distance as Barney Golledge and Arthur Nield are both running in the county’s claret and gold vest.

Anthony Cruise runs 6k as an U17M and Olivia and Evie Avery lead the county team in the U15G 4k event.

Ruth Brook (U17W – 5k) and Seren Jones (U20W -6k) occupy a similar position in their teams. Laura Wenham is the first reserve for the U17W.

The third Gloucestershire Cross Country League returned to the Cotswold Farm Park on Saturday 6th January.

The under13s raced first with Ezri Sunter finishing 23rd girl in 18:31 and  and Eloise Adcock (in her first cross country race) coming 25th girl in 19:51.

They were followed by the U11s who had a very difficult 3 laps of the bumpy field.  

Hanny Mundy was the first Gloucester AC runner to come home over the rhythm denying bumps as 21st boy in 8:41, Kingsley Ward was 25th in 8:59 and Sebastian Sterling-Welford completed the team in 30th place with 9:19.

Next to race were the U15s over 4.7k. Barney Golledge was the first GAC runner home running a steady paced race to come 5th boy home in 19:46. Arthur Nield closed the distance throughout the second half of the race to finish 6th boy just 4 seconds behind Barney whilst Olivia Avery finished just 2 seconds away from Arthur to take the second girl spot.

Jaimie Hebbron  paced himself well to improve places in the last 2k taking 13th boys place (20:26) with Evie Avery third girl in 20:33.

After a fast first 1k Joe  Cruise faded but then had an exciting battle with Ethan Norris with Joe finishing in 21;47 and Ethan to seconds behind for 18th and 19th places.

Anthony Cruise lead the Gloucester AC runners home in the women’s, U17s and older master men 6.4k race. Tracked by a Durley and a Team Bath runner for the last 3k Cruise dropped the team Bath athlete with about 2k to go and outsprinted the Dursley man to finish 2nd, his highest league placing (25:03). Seren Jones was first U20W with after a good fast start which placed her well  a fine exhibition of steady effort racing for 29:22.

Amber Spackman had one of her better cross country races coming in second U20W in 51st place for 31:58. One second behind Amber was 8th placed W40 Anna Midgley with a faster finishing Grace Hinga in 32:42 for 61st place and 3rd W50. Emma Stalberg was 88th in 35:17, Abby Brook in her first year for some time 100th (36:48), Nicola Waters 3rd W65 in 39:29, Kirsty Norris 154th in 46:58 and Chris O’Carroll first M75 in 158th place in 59:27.

The men’s race was over 10k. Charlie Worsfold  showed good pace discipline, holding back a little over the bumpy field then powering along the firm down hill, to come 7th and first M20 in 36:28. Owen parry finished 26th in 38:28, and Charlie Coles in his first cross country race over this distance gain third M20 place (30th; 39:04). Next to finish was James Walters in 51st place (41;25), Chris Nield 72nd (43:52) and Dave Gresswell in 92nd for 46:03.  Ben Griffiths was 110th in 47:57 and Young Athlete coach Martin Brook won  a sprint finish for 117th place in 49:19.

Gloucestershire Cross Country Championships alongside those of Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire, were held within the second Gloucestershire CC league meeting at Bath University.

Callum Yates was the first Gloucester Athletic Club runner to race with 9th place in the U13 boys race and 4th Gloucestershire runner in 10:27.

Darcy Poole lead the U13 Girls team home in 27th with 12:53, Ezri Sunter moved through the field for 39th in 13:59 with Sophie Carter gamely finished the course in one shoe after losing her spike after half a mile for 42nd place in 14:38. Eloise Adcock completed the team in 43rd place 15:29.

U11 boys ran next and were the most successful Gloucester AC team.

Ben Jones ran a controlled race to finish5th in the race for a silver county medal in 7:04

Hanny Mundy was 22nd in 7:46 with Toby Brooks completing he scoring team in 24th  7 seconds behind. Kingsley Ward was 33rd in 8:06 and Sebastian Sterling-Welford 44th in 8:36.

Lexi Wiliams ran in the corresponding girls’ one lap  race in 10:05 for 36th place.

Arthur Nield was 8th county scorer in 24th position 13:55 running a well paced race as is his style. Joe Cruise was 36th (14:37) Jamie Hebbron in his second cross country race for the club nearly catching Cruise one position and one second behind. Ethan Norris ran 15:10 for 41st place.  Gloucester were fourth team.

With illness affecting the U15 girls team the lone Gloucester competitor Seren Williams as 32nd in 18:47.

Anthony Cruise was the sole Gloucester representative in the U17M race finishing faster over the last lap for county Bronze and 10th place in 19:39.

Ruth Brook was determined not to drop out  again as running with a painful foot she came 9th in the race for the GAAA bronze medal in 23:47.  Laura Wenham was 18th in 30:02.

Seren Jones continued her spate of confident racing showing great rhythm over the 3 lap and challenging course. 23rd in the race, 4 U20W gaining the silver medal in 27:12. Kim Milward  returned to racing for 53rd position in 29:04 with Anna Midgley racing for the first time in months in  63rd position (29:46). Kirsty Norris and Emma Stalberg  completed the teams with the senior team coming 14th and the masters team 10th.  Chris O’Carroll was the first M80 in the 6k race in 155th place in exactly 50 minutes.

Another young athlete led the senior men home with Charlie Worsfold taking the county silver medal and showing that he has learnt about pacing  for 39th position (37:10)  Owen Parry was 77th in 40:07  and Jeremy Mower 95th in 42:04 for the county Gold M55 medal. Chris Nield – as did many of the other athletes - found the gently sloping course deceptively hard finishing in 121st in 44:24. Martin Brook completed the 11th placed masters team in 183rd place for 50:57.

Gloucester Athletic Club young athletes were both successful and learnt or applied learning in the Gloucestershire Schools Cross Country Championships at Newent School on Sunday 3rd December.

Ruth Brook who has never won on that course before determinedly applied the lessons from previous year’s races.  Always in the front of the leading group of Intermediate girls she pulled away to win by 2 seconds in 14:20 becoming the first of three club runners to gain a gold medal.

Alice Stalberg continued her come back running with good form for 25th 17:09 position.  Laura Wenham   was 36th (18:24) with Amy Rowan  38th in 18:49.

Intermediate  boy Arthur Neild ran a well paced race starting in 12th place and moving through the field to finish 6th in 20:21 and was followed by Barney Golledge using similar tactics in 20:58 for 9th.

Ezri Sunter ran the minor girls race for 36th (16:22).

Senior girl Seren Jones, always in the leading group, showed good tactical skill and determination to pull away over the last half mile to gain the second gold medal in 16:13 winning with an 11sec margin.

Senior Boys ran 6k with Charlie Worsfield challenging for a medal until the final lap when a foot problem slowed him to fourth in 23:36 whilst Anthony Cruise ran in 5th although in contrast he relaxed over the final lap to speed up to  23:49.

Olivia Avery and her sister Evie showed how they have both learnt pace judgement; holding back in the first scramble for places they soon established themselves near the front.  After 1500m Oliva had moved to the front tracked by Stroud athlete Connie Rendell but accelerated over the last 200m to finish 1st in 13:51, 2 seconds in front. Evie Avery stormed over the last 400m to gain a place for 5th 14:27. Phoebe Golledge, a year younger, but showing how to pace well finished 15th in 15:50.

The final race saw Callum Yates finish 15th in 14:37, improving on 2 places in the last mile.  Joe Cruise - learning the virtue of starting on the start line - started at the back of the field and was tripped but didn’t panic and worked through steadily to come 19th 15:54.  Ethan Norris also took several runners to complete the 3.8k course in  15:02 for  22nd place.

Three Gloucester AC middle distance young athletes competed in the Forest of Dean Secondary School Cross Country Trials at Newent School.

First to race was Inter Boy Barney Golledge who ran the first half mile in fourth place but then moved through the field to finish a strong second.

Phoebe Golledge raced the Junior Girls approximate 3k race; she maintained a steady even pace after the first 400m having become isolated in the field and finishing 6th as first in her year group.

Callum Yates had to wait for the final race of two large laps for Junior Boys. He established a 40m lead after 800m but then some breathing difficulties slowed him on the second lap so he ran a steadier race to finish second.

All three were selected to represent the district in the County Secondary Schools AA on Dec 3rd in Newent.

Several Gloucester AC young athletes competed in district trials on Friday 19thNovember.

Gloucester City trials were held at Plock Court which was a mixture of deep water and firm running. Ezri Sunter was the first Gloucester AC runner to splash through the deeper puddles finishing 9th in the minor girls race.

Junior boy Joe Cruise shared the lead for all of the race but good knowledge of the course enabled him to sprint from 3rd to first place in the last 20m.  Ethan Norris  ran steadily allowing him to move through the field to take 8th place.

In the junior girls race National quality sprinter Amari Cambridge showed her versatility by finishing 5th. Sophie Carter who with her team was delayed starting as a teacher was giving final instructions ran a well paced  second half of the race to finish 17th.

Arthur Neild shared the lead again for the intermediate boys race  dropping a little in the last 400m  allowing two older boys to finish in front but gaining a well clear 3rd place and first finisher in Y10. Ollie Beaumont completed at last half of the course carrying a shoe and finished a strong 12th with Jamie Hebbron 14th (4th Y10)  overtaking in the last 40m using his 800m track speed.

Ruth Brook easily dominated her Intermediate girls race  only losing the lead when the second placed runner took advantage of the  lack of course markers to take a shorter route; Ruth quickly regained the lead finishing with a faster burst and cadence of 215.

Amy Rowan  and Laura Wenham ran well paced races to finish 9th and 11th. Riley Rossiter was well pleased with her 18th place.

Senior boy Charlie Worsfold ran with a school mate for the first mile but then powered ahead to   win convincingly whilst Anthony Cruise and Charlie Coles had their usual  ding dong battle with Anthony finishing just in front of  Charlie for 2nd and 3rdplaces.

Seren Jones nursing a bruised foot after another schools race on Tuesday came in second  ( for the second time this week) less than second behind the winner.  Chloe Shepard was third.

Cheltenham Schools held their trials in the afternoon over a hilly course at St. Edwards Preparatory School. Junior girls Olivia and Evie Avery dominated the race over taking the adult male hare after 400m and finishing an exuberant first and second well clear of third place.

Intermediate girl Alice  Stalberg showed that perseverance pays off and finished 7th showing the beginning of  a return to form.

The largest number of Gloucester AC athletes for many years competed in a very muddy Gloucestershire CC League in Cirencester Park on Saturday.

This fixture is always important for the Gloucester AC young athletes and this year offered a number of athletes their first opportunity to race for the city club. Heavy rain over night had left the course muddy and challenging but didn’t deter the strong Glos AC athletes.

The first race of the day was the Under 13’s Boys and Girls. The first Athlete home over the 3km course was Callum Yates in an impressive 14:32 to claim 10th position, followed by Darcy Poole who was 21st Girl home in a time of 17:44 and finally Shriram Balasubramanian in his first race for the club finished in 44th Boy in 22:34.

The Next race was the Under 11’s where the team was led home by Ben Jones who ran hard from the gun to ensure he was among those fighting for the front of the race. Ben covered the 2km course in 8:59 to finish in 6th position, Hot on Ben’s heals was Hanny Mundy in 14th position and a time of 9:19, Kingsley ward was next in 34th position and a time of 10:11. Jacob Gill was next home for the club in a time of 10:29 to take 38thposition followed closely by Sebastian Sterling-Welford in 10:57 and 42nd position. Fist Gloucester AC Girl was Amy Wright who finished in 11:23 to take the 16th position in the girls race closely followed by Lexi Williams in 11:33 for 19th position completing the team for Gloucester was Khyan Nestola who finished in 12:11 and took 49th position.

Club coaches were pleased to see U15G and U15B teams. Barney Golledge lead the team home in a well paced 6th place (20:46) moving through the field with ease. Joe Cruise ran an equally well paced race to come 15th (21:58) whilst Jamie Hebbron changed his football studs to running spikes as his match was cancelled at the last minute to finish in 20th (22:10). Ethan Norris raced over the country for the first time finishing in26th (23:31) Paddy Figgis, after a long break from competition was 33rd (25:27).

Olivia Avery was 3rd U15G but running along side the boys almost caught her training partner, Jamie, (22:11) after a slower first small lap. Evie Avery pulled through the muddy course to finish 5th (22:54) Seren Williams, in her first cross country race completed the team in 21st (30:57) with Riley Rossiter returning from illness but enjoying the mud and smiling all the way round in 22nd (33:40)

The penultimate race held a mixture of age groups. First runner home for Gloucester was U17M Anthony Cruise with his highest ever placing of 4th in the race and in his age group. Anthony lead for the first few hundred metres of the 6.4k race but then settles into a more steady pace. U17W Ruth Brook had a similarly fast start with an initial cadence of 214. Despite lowering that, specially on the 3 hills on each of the two laps she finished first in her age group and 29th (31:02) in the race. Laura Wenham in her first race finished 7th U17W (43:45).

U20W Amber Spackman was the second Gloucester woman home managing the tricky muddy descents well in 15th U20 place (36:48) and Ethan's mother Kirstie Norris in her first race was 19th W40 in 56:39.

Senior men ran 3 laps of the very cut up course. Owen Parry ina return to crosss country after a very long tome away because of injury finished 6th M40 (43:17) with James Walters only two places behind in 45:42. Dave Gresswell ran the 9.5 k course in 53:53 for 11th M50 place and Martin Brook 19th M50 in 58:41. Ben Griffiths ran a steady paced race over the 9 hills to finish 14th U20M in 54:46.

Olivia Avery running in her last 1500m race of the season, a heat of the UKA U15 Girls championship confirmed how she has matured as an athlete this year.

Having discussed various race scenarios with her coach she showed how her pace judgement has improved by reaching the 300m  spot on the middle of the range of times but some 15m down on the other runners who were all compressed into a tight group.

Rounding the bend of the first full lap Olivia, having closed the gap on the disintegrating group, over that 50m, started  in her and her twin's words “hunting down” the runners.  The next two laps saw the “hunting” showing how well Olivia's pace judgement has become with  700m reached on target.  

During the second half Olivia continued her progress moving through the field to 7th place and narrowly being out sprinted for 6th to finish in her second fastest time (4:49.14) and 0.6 seconds outside qualifying for the finals.

All the other girls in front of Olivia were in their second year in this age group so this performance augurs well for next year.

Gloucester AC promoted the Haresfield 5k road race on Wednesday 16th. Based on the Beacon Inn there was a good turnout form the promoting club both in terms of athletes and officials and volunteers to organise the event.

First home for the club in 5th place and first U20 man was the versatile Charlie Worsfold who took 50 seconds off his PB to finish strongly in 16:28.

Close behind Own Parry was the first M40 (8th) in a PB of 16:41 followed by Alasdair Stewart (11th) for 3rd M40 with 17:02.

This 5k race proved to be an excellent start to the preparation of the young athletes middle distance squad for the upcoming Midland Road Relays and Cross Country season with, in their first 5k road race, Charlie Coles closing on Anthony Cruise over the last 100m for both to be given 17:31 in 17th and 16th places and both taking chunks off their parkrun best times. Coles was 2nd U20M and Cruise first U17M gaining Gloucestershire AAA medals in the 5k Championship.

Jason Tilley only 10 seconds off his PB was first M50 in 19th place with 17:59.

15 year old Ruth Brook ran a well judged first 5k taking 13 sec of her parkrun time to finish a determined first lady in 18:37 3 second ahead of the second woman who was 3 times her age.

Millie Porter was first U20 woman with 19:12 for 33rd position.

Joe Cruise again in his first 5k road race was first U15B (49th) with 20:24 which was again faster that park run times.

Neil Hobbs was 3rd M60 in 21:23 closely followed by Chris Davies in 21:33

The second Gloucestershire Cross-Country league meeting took place on Dec 10th  on a dairy farm near Arlingham.

Ruth Brook (19:20) took the U15 girls winner's title in her usual determined and fast style leading from start to finish pulling further away from the opposition over the fastest final part of the course alongside the River Severn. Boys and girls ran alongside each other in separate races and Barney Goleridge coped well with the rough terrain, moving through the field finishing 11th U15B in 20:34.

Lydia Wang was second scorer in the girls' team in 29th (23:48) and Tasha Scholfield in her first race for for the club for several years finished strongly in 32nd 26:55 as did Aliya Hankins 34th 29:08. The team was 4th only 5 points behind the second placed team.

Phoebe Goleridge was Gloucester AC's only girl in the U13 race – we would love to have more athletes of that age – completing the just under 3k race as 8th U13G in 15:23. Jacob Knowles ran steadily to finish 23rd U13B (18:25)

Johnnes Mundy was 30th 9:27 23rd in the U11 race over very hard ground.

Anthony Cruise and Charlie Coles ran and helped each other to a good pace over the first 5k of their 6.5k race then Cruise pulled away to finish 6th U17M in 24:07 with Coles just 10 seconds behind in 7th. Ben Griffiths running his second race for the club and learning from each race ran a well paced race for 14th U17M in 28:46. The team placed second.

Gloucester AC's women are making this the focus of their cross-country season so had two teams out. In her first race of the season Briony Bishop was 10th Senior Woman in 27:40 followed by young athletes' coach Emma Jeffery in 62 race place – U17 men and women ran alongside the seniors - and 4th W45 in 30:24. Daughter Lucy Jeffery was not far behind in 67th 30:45 and Grace Vido in her season's debut was second W50 (75th in the race ) in 31:27. Amber Spackman 81st in the race with 32:06 followed by Charlotte Hall 106th 34:36 to complete the B team with W60 Nicola Waters 113th in 35:15

The A team was 11th and B team 19th out of 34. The masters team was also 11th

U20 Man Finlay Hawkins, after slowing on the second of three laps but picking up to overtake on the third led the senior men's team home in 45th (36:12). Sam Crowther making his debut for the Gloucester AC team but suffering from a cold finished the first lap in from of Hawkins but then slowed on the softening surface to come in 64th with 38:03.

The A team was completed by James Walters 80th (39:25), then two more of the young athletes' coaches Peter Jeffery in 117th 43:02 and Martin Brook 129th in 44:14 with Lee Moore 145th (46:03). Neil Hobbs was 146th in 46:28. The men's team almost matched the senior women with the A team coming 12th and the masters team 11th.

Having been promoted to division 1 of the Birmingham Cross Country League, and held on to our place in division 1 in the last couple of seasons, we travelled to the first fixture on the 2022/23 season, knowing that it will be tough to stay in the premier league again.

The team was depleted slightly due to injuries, and some athletes being unavailable for different reasons. This said, a lot of the backbone of last season's team made the trip to Crewe, on an unseasonably warm, bright and dry day.

After a walk of the course, it was found that conditions were similar to the first race of last season, and if anything a little drier underfoot. The course remained the same, rolling countryside. No major climbs, but also not many flat sections.

A field of near 300 men toed the start line, and after the customary dash for position over the first 300m, things settled down, with a long line of runners snaking across the skyline.

With the university teams fielding what looked like coach loads of runners, it was difficult to work out how Gloucester were doing as a team during the race. However, what was clear to see was the commitment and hard work written across the faces as each white and red stripe vest raced passed.

With the pressure that comes with being the teams best XC runner, Richard de-Camps never fails to deliver, and let the team home in an excellent 26th place overall. Not far behind, and still coming back to fitness, was Harry Wells in 63rd. Next back and 3rd scorer for the A Team was Finlay Hawkins, a fantastic result in only his second season racing with the senior men. Not far behind Finlay, and in 124th was 4th team scorer Eugenio Diz, another excellent run to make the A scoring team. Great to have Eugenio as part of the team, now that his work is a bit more flexible. Completing the A team scoring, were training partners Andrew de-Camps and Marc Barnett. Finishing in 132nd and 140th positions, and completing a respectable A team overall finish of 11th out of 16 teams.

Backing up the A team, we’re the ever dependable trio of James Walters, Luke Hine, and Neil Hobbs, All three pushing back the competitors team finishers, meaning out A Team score was well outside of the relegation zone.

A fantastic result from all 9 athletes. A great start to the campaign to stay in division one.

Gloucester AC had a highly successful third fixture of the Midlands Track and Field League Division 1, held on Sunday in sweltering conditions at Rugby. Having won the previous two fixtures, victory on the day would all but guarantee the title with one more match to come in August. This follows on from successive promotions from the depths of Division 4 and would cement Gloucester's place at the top level of Midlands athletics.

Field event athletes were the backbone of a superb team performance, as Gloucester triumphed by 12 points on the day with 393, compared to Notts AC in second with 381.

There were double victories for Joel Townley in the long and triple jump, plus Gareth Winter in the shot put and discus, ably supported by a hammer win and a B string shot put win for Tim Williams. Elise Bue made a very welcome debut for the club in the discus, winning by 10 metres and gaining bonus points for achieving the IAAF standard. Beth Bird made a very welcome return to competition winning the B string discus and scoring valuable points in the javelin. Ellen Thrall and Christen Campion were second A string and first B string respectively in the hammer, with Campion also gaining a shot put second place.

Multi-eventers Kate Davies, Julia Johnson and Jacqui Holloway all had extremely busy afternoons and weighed in with a plethora of points in the jumps, throws and hurdles, despite the stifling conditions.

Team Manager Matt Holloway didn't want to miss out so managed third in the pole vault, in between cajoling Josh Robinson and Kyle Neal to strong performances across a broad range of events.

The weather didn't help the distance runners but Richard De Camps came up with his customary strong performance in the 1500m, just missing out on the win by two-tenths of a second. Oli Demain made a hugely impressive debut for the club in the 800m with a win and new personal best by over a second, ably supported by Ethan Hood who performed well over both 800m and 400m.

The sprint races were of a particularly high standard but Ben Reeves, Oli Mitchell, Ella Julin and debutant Lottie Sawi performed well to score good points. The relays completed the proceedings and Gloucester had lots of youngsters competing, with particularly strong runs coming from Mille Newell, Seren Jones and Catherine Thomas.

Team Manager Matt Holloway said afterwards "I'm so pleased that some very strong all-round performances resulted in another team first place, this sets us up nicely to win the title at the final fixture. We have developed a committed group of athletes who are driving up standards, but there are still gaps that need filling so we hope to have a huge turnout for Nottingham in August".

On Sunday the 3rd April Jeremy Mower travelled to North Inch Park in Perth, Scotland to compete in the Anglo-Celtic Plate 100km race where he made his 17th consecutive appearance for Wales: A record number of appearances for any athlete in this annual fixture. Over 70 athletes representing teams from England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales compete over the 100km course with Mower finishing 39th place out of 53 finishers in a time of 9 hours, 5 min, 45 seconds. After the race Mower said “I felt good for most of the race but was lacking strength in the second half of the race which was causing my stride length to shorten.” 

Young sprinters Amari Cambridge and Sienna Thomas travelled to Lee Valley to kick off their outdoor seasons at the Lee Valley April Open Meeting.

Amari, running in her first ever outdoor 100m and 200m events started with a personal best of 14.34s into a very strong -3.5k/s headwind to finish 5th in her heat. She then followed this up with a time of 29.91s in her 200m event to finish 6th in the race. setting two personal best times was and a great start for her first ever outdoor event, she rose to the occasion and performed admirably against girls a lot older than her.

Sienna also showed the benefits of her hard work over the winter months as she opened her season in style in both the 100m and 200m events. She ran a new PB of 13.89s in her heat and winning the race and followed this up with an awesome 200m race finishing in a time of 28.45s and 2nd in the race.

The Girl’s coach Justin said after the event “This was a great day for two young athletes who are just beginning their athletics career. They were even a bit starstruck watching Dina Asher-Smith competing in the 400m as part of her pre season preparation.”

The Gloucestershire AAA 2021 Road Race Series Award Evening on Friday 1st April offered an opportunity for a number of club athletes to celebrate their successful seasons. Jeremy Mower won two awards: A silver medal in the Open Men category with 31 points and a Gold in the M50 with a maximum possible score of 50 points.  M40 Simon Crilley also collected a silver in his age group with 20 points while M75 Dave Spackman won the gold for his age group with 46 points.

The Gloucester AC men dominated the team awards gaining the Men's Open team Gold with 51 points, a massive 90 points ahead of second placed Dursley RC.

The Men's masters team also won also gold, 137 points ahead of Almost Athletes masters.

On Sunday Neil Hobbs travelled to Manchester to compete in the Manchester Marathon. Following a consistent winter where Neil has featured regularly in the club cross country team he felt he was in good shape ready for the challenging 26.2 miles. Neal ran a consistent pace through the first 30K before tiring slightly over the final kilometres. Despite this he finished in a time of 3:29:18 and secured 117th position in the M55 category, his fastest time over the distance for 10 years. Afterwards Neil Said: “I enjoyed the race and it bought back some happy memories of my student days in the City.”

Meanwhile Alasdair Stewart took time out of his family holiday to represent Gloucester AC in the Disney 10K at Epcot, Florida as part of their “Springtime Surprise weekend”. Out of a field over 9500 athletes Alasdair finished in 2nd place in a time of 37:30. Afterwards Alasdair said “[The] time was a bit slower than I would have hoped but it was a 5am race and the humidity was still intense even at that time in the morning. [It was] still, a really fun experience all round.”

Ben Reeves kick-started his outdoor season with a 60m outdoor race at the Yate Open meeting on Sunday. Ben set a club age group best time of 7.90 seconds finishing 5th among a field of athletes with youth on their side. Ben's early season form augurs well with the summer season fast approaching.

In the "Over and Back Severn Bridge 5-mile race" on Friday evening the Jeffery family all finished in the top 10th of the field. Peter finished 28th in 34:22 - 2 minutes faster than he managed in the November race over the same course - and 2nd in the M55 category. Emma continued her season of prize-winning finishing 37th position overall with a time of 34:52 and taking first prise in the W45 category, another fastest race over the same course by 35 seconds. Their daughter Lucy was not far behind running a very even paced race for 40th place for first junior in a time of 35:16.

Midlands Men’s 12 Stage and Women’s 6 Stage Road Relays Report

After a gap of three years, the Midlands Men’s 12 Stage and Women’s 6 Stage Road Relays made a welcome return to the racing calendar over the weekend. Sunshine and blue skies welcomed the best athletes from across the midlands to Sutton Park in Birmingham. Not to miss out, Gloucester Athletic Club sent up 31 athletes to compete across four teams to fly the flag for the city. Men’s legs consisted of the first four athletes running 5.38 miles with the last eight legs being 3.16 miles. For the women, legs one and three were 5.38 miles with the remaining legs being 3.16 miles.

The strength and depth of the men’s team has become more evident over the past couple of years and Saturday justified how far they have come. Firstly, the men’s A team had their best performance in over 10 years to finish 10th in 4 hours 16 minutes and 1 second. Led off by Road Race Captain James Denne, he set the team off to a strong start, finishing in 8th place in 27.25. On leg 2, James Chantler-Mayne, making his debut for the club ran a storming leg to move the team up to 3rd place with a time of 27.17. Richard De-Camps ran a solid third leg to finish in 6th place in 29.00. After battling Covid last week, Steve Kenyon ran a brilliant leg to finish in 7th place in 29.43.

Pete Haynes has made huge strides over the winter and fully justified his place in the team by finishing in 10th place in 18.06. Marc Barnett ran a good leg to finish 11th in 18.11 with Andrew De-Camps holding position well to finish 11th in a time of 17.04. Harry Wells continued his comeback from injury with a personal course record in moving the team up into the top 10 with a time of 16.28. On leg 9, Finlay Hawkins continued to show his development and form from the cross country season to maintain 10th place in 18.08. The ever reliable Jeremy Mower did a good job to finish in 10th place in 18.22. Eugenio Diz had one of the best runs of his life and looked like he thoroughly enjoyed the event in maintaining 10th on leg 11 in 17.43. With the pressure of Bristol and West B team behind, James Walters knew he has to work hard to maintain a top 10 placing, but he performed admirably in maintaining position to finish in 18.34.

A strong B team finished 44th in 5 hours 19 minutes and 16 seconds with many of the athletes knocking on the door of the A team. Dave Gresswell took on the mantle of leading the team off and finished 55th in 33.41. Luke Hine has developed really well over the last few months and his progress was clear to see by moving the team up six places to finish 49th in 33.21. Club veteran, Lee Smith maintained position to finish 49th in 35.18. Jason Tilley showed his work on hills has made a difference by picking off two place to finish 47th in 32.54.

Gray Davis, running his first road relays showed his marathon training is helping his form by maintaining 47th place in 20.15. On leg 6, after a very busy morning, Peter Jeffery rushed to get to Birmingham and placed well in picking off two athletes to finish 45th in 21.41. Lee Moore made a welcome return to racing for the club in finishing 46th in 22.27. On leg 8, Neil Hobbs, who loves a relay finished 47th in 22.15. Arthur Daley had the afternoon off officiating and volunteering, enabling him to run a good leg in picking of five people to finish 42nd in 23.31. On leg 10, Matt Singer ran well to maintain 42nd position in 21.40. Over the past month, it has been noticed how Will Singer has progressed and the training is paying off by finishing 40th in 20.25. Super vet, Chris O’Carroll had the glory leg and brought the team home in 44th in 31.48.

The women’s A team had been depleted by injury and unavailability, but the club were still able to put out a complete team and perform well by finishing 17th in a time of 2 hours 40 minutes and 24 seconds. Hayley Winters continued her good form from the Bourton 10K to finish 16th in 33.57. Grace Hinga stepped into the team at the last minute and ran well to finish 24th in 23.15. Tracy Hinxman made her relays debut for the club and showed her class on not her favourite type of course in picking off eight athletes to finish 16th in 33.38. Nicola Waters was another athlete who stepped into the team at the last minute and she stepped up to the mark well and did the club proud by finishing 18th in 25.20. Not to be outdone, Lucy Jeffery picked off one athlete to finish 17th in 22.23 with her mum Emma Jeffery maintaining her good recent form to finish 17th in 21.51.

The women’s B team unfortunately consisted of only one athlete, however Trudy Wells, making her racing return to the club after two years ran admirably in finishing 63rd in 47.19.

Seven Gloucester AC athletes were selected to represent Gloucestershire in the Inter-counties Cross Country Championships on Saturday. First to race over the undulating course was Finlay Hawkins in the U20 8k race. Finley had a strong race to finish 131st among a competitive field in a time of 33:56.

Emma Jeffery, gained her first senior representative honours to cap an impressive cross-country season for the W45 athlete. Emma finished 241st in the senior women’s 8k race in a time of 41:27.

Barney Golledge, in his first season with the club was the youngest athlete representing Gloucester on the day. Barney ran the 3k race for the U13 team and enjoyed coming 146th in 13:17.

Jess Hill U17W ran a well throughout the race and showed how she has overcome her recent injury troubles to move through the field over the closing stages; producing a very fast last 300m to take 82nd place in 23:03.

Ruth Brook despite having lost training due to an ankle problems was second scorer in the U15G 4k running relaxed but strongly for 198th in 18:46

Gloucester AC had two runners in the U20W race with Millie Porter powering through the  2-lap course to place of 28th in 28:20 and Amber Spackman coping well with the firm but clogging mud to finish 110th in 33:19.

James Denne travelled down to Tonbridge, Kent to compete at the British Masters Cross Country Championships. Set in the grounds of Somerhill School, the undulating course offered firmer racing than recent races. James set off fast and in the front group. As the race progressed James found himself in a battle for the silver medal with Ben Cole of Tonbridge throughout the 8k course. Denne’s strength came through in the closing stages as he ran clear of Cole to take second place in the male vet 35 category, taking his first British Masters medal.

On Sunday Oscar Wilson and Theo Miles travelled to Sheffield to compete in the England Athletics U17 & U15 Combined Events Indoor Championships. It was the first time either of them had competed in an indoor pentathlon. Oscar Wilson is in the 2nd year of the U15’s and has started the season well. Theo Myles is in his first year of the U15 age group and has only been competing in combined events for a year. Both had respectable times in the 60m hurdles with Oscar getting 10.22s and Theo 10.37s (a new PB). They then moved straight into the long jump. Oscar produced a first-round jump of 5.16m which he was unable to better in the subsequent rounds. Theo’s second round jump of 4.37m was his best on the day. Next event for the Gloucester duo was the high jump. Theo performed well jumping 1.41m which is only 2cm short on his PB. Oscar’s first height set a new PB of 1.39m and he went on from there to set a huge PB of 1.59m. After a brief break the pair moved on to the shot put. Having moved up an age group this year Theo was throwing the 4kg shot for the first time, a 1kg increase from last year. He was able to post a new PB of 6.56m. Oscar continued his impressive day throwing a new PB of 9.20m. After a break of only 30 minutes the final event of the day was the 800m. Both struggled with pacing their race over the 4 laps however they were able to record competitive times. Theo ran 2m 49s and Oscar 2m 31s. Theo’s overall score was 1471 to rank 13th and Oscar 2118 setting a new club record in the process of ranking 8th on the day. Combined events coach Matt Holloway said afterwards “Both [of the athletes] performed well and should be proud of themselves. There is definitely a lot more to come from them this season!”

Ethan Hood travelled to Manchester to compete in the Manchester Indoor Open Meeting on Sunday. Ethan set a new PB finishing second in the 300m race with a time of 38.62. In his 600m race Ethan demonstrated his tactical awareness to dominate the field and win the race in a time of 1.28.86.

At the British Masters Indoor track and field championships at Lee Valley, Jo Willoughby was the sole club representative in the women’s vet 55 long jump and triple jump. Jo added more medals to her ever impressive medal hall in winning both events with a distance of 10.19 metres in the triple jump and 4.64 metres in the long jump.

In Manchester, three members of the combined events group took part in another Manchester Open. Josh Robinson competed in the pole vault clearing 3.20 metres for a new club record and then stopping as a precaution due to his shoulder hurting. He vaulted very well and would have gone higher. Josh also competed in the 200 metres and ran a new PB of 24.76. Kyle Neal cleared 2.70 metres in the pole vault and is technically getting better, he then ran 27.15 in the 200 metres. Bailey Ward competed in the long jump with 3.15 metres, the 60 metres with a new PB of 10.39 and shot put with a good 6.23 metres which is a PB with a new weight. Oli Mitchell who trains with the middle distance and combined events group competed in his first ever hurdles race starting from blocks for the first time too. He ran a very respectable 10.35. He then competed in the 600 metres running 1.34.55 improving his PB and club record by 2.5 seconds. He finished with the 200 metres running a new PB of 26.36.

Meanwhile, back in Gloucestershire, the final Gloucestershire Cross Country League fixture of the season saw a condensed programme of races, that seemed to be well received by most competitors, and certainly meant a shorter day for the marshals and officials who without these events could not take place. It was also a nice bright, sunny day, with a chilly breeze but once warmed up, not a bad day for racing. Despite a week of rain, the ground was actually fairly dry, and not a lot of mud.

The racing started with the under 11 boys racing over 2km with Gloucester’s Jacob Knowles clocking 9.26, in 28th place. Followed by the under 13 boys over 3.2km with Beau Gwilliam finishing 21st. The under 15 girls and boys combined race was over 4.8km. Anthony Cruise finished a creditable 6th in 19.45, with Alice Stalberg 7th under 15 girl in 22.55.

There was a big field of runners for the combined under 20, senior, and masters ladies, which also included the under 17 men. In fact it was a close race near the front by two Gloucester athletes, in different categories. Charlie Coles just pipped a fast finishing Millie Porter by just 1 second. Millie was awarded a Silver Medal in the race series. Charlie finished 3rd in the under 17 men’s, and Millie finishing 3rd in the under 20 ladies, in a time of 29.03, over the 6.4km course. Only a couple of minutes further back was Emma Jeffery who had a fantastic run to easily win the ladies vet 45 race, and a gold medal in the race series. Keira Barry finished 2nd in the under 17 ladies race in 32.53 and picked up a bronze medal in the race series. Lucy Jeffery was 6th in the under20 ladies, with Amber Spackman picking up 7th in the same category.

Final race of the day was four full laps of the course, a distance of 8.6km. Featuring under 20 men, senior men, and masters men, Gloucester AC had a team of four with covered all bases. First back for the club, in 14th place overall, and second in his age group was under 20 Finlay Hawkins. A strong season for Finlay who won a bronze medal in the race series. Next two back for the club, and on their 4th consecutive weekend of cross country races was James Walters in 25th, and 14th Senior Man, followed in 3rd vet 55, and 46th overall in the race, Dave Gresswell. 11th in the vet 55 category, finishing 65th overall, with a storming sprint finish was Peter Jeffery.

Club Committee Cross Country Representative, Dave Gresswell, said it was generally a great day out, with some good runs, and nice to see some individual race series medals. That said, would be nice to see a few more club members do this league next season, because as a club we do have the potential to win more in the league. In addition, the Glos AAA League, which is led by our own Arthur Daley, worked hard this post Covid season to get the races on. The league certainly provided some testing courses, in Cirencester, short course in Stroud, the classic Cheltenham course, and a sunny but hilly Old Down.

Finally, down in Seaton, Devon, Steve Kenyon and Jason Tilley took part in The Grizzly, a multi-terrain race across the glorious East Devon coastline and countryside. With support from friends, family and fellow club members, both Steve and Jason ran well over a challenging terrain. Steve finished 14th in 2 hours 36 minutes and 14 seconds with Jason 79th in 3 hours 5 minutes and 45 seconds. Jason described the race afterward as 15 miles of very tough cross country, followed by 5 miles of pebbles, knees deep mud, river crossing and cliff climbs. A great event though and very well organised with a fire engine hose down at the end.

After the recent storms and heavy rain, it was a welcome relief on Saturday, and sunshine and blue sky welcomed thousands of athletes to Parliament Hill in London, to take part in the annual English National Cross Country Championships. This prestigious event sees runners from athletic clubs from across the country take part in one of the toughest races of the season.

Not to miss out, Gloucester AC sent up a small, select, group of runners to fly the flag for the city.

First onto the extremely muddy, and hilly course, in the Senior Ladies race was Briony Bishop, who raced well over the 8km course to finish a very respectable 259th out of 1,010 finishers, in 37mins 57secs.

Next up, and also from the Paul de-Camps coached group, was Marc Barnett, who from a slightly smaller field of runners, managed 128th place in a. Time of 39mins 25seconds.

 The final race of the day, saw over 2,000 Senior men, line up for 3 laps round the Parliament Hill course, a total of 12km of mud, hills and sweat.

As with all the other races the first 300m is uphill, and the sight of that many men charging up the hill, to try and negotiate the first course pinch point is a sight to behold, and slightly scary if you are part of it!

The Gloucester AC charge was led by Andrew de-Camps who has enjoyed a resurgence this season with some consistent training bearing fruit. Andre finishes in 467th place in a time of 52 mins 16 seconds. In a field of the best runners in the country a top 500 is an impressive achievement.

Next back was James Walters in 878th place in a time of 57 mins 48 seconds. James said he found the course tough, and the thick mud particularly heavy going. But this was Walters third cross country race in as many weeks, and to get round this course in under the hour shows his strength in this discipline.

Missing out on the hour mark, in a time of 1 hr 3 mins and 43 seconds, was Dave Gresswell. Again, this was also three in a row for Gresswell, who also always finds the deep mud hard going. That said there were a few drier sections, which Gresswell said he enjoyed and could make some time and places back. He finished in 1,296th place.

Meanwhile. Neil Hobbs was taking part in his first ‘National’, and although finding it tough, also enjoying it. Hobbs has been a regular member of the club’s cross country team this season, and did not want to miss out on this one. Finishing 1,862nd in a time of 1 hr 14 mins 45 secs.

At the other end of the experience scale is veteran club athlete Chris O’Carroll, taking part in what we believe was around his 53rd English National event!

After a fall halfway, which he blames on the leaders lapping him, and throwing him head first into the mud and bramble bush, he defiantly battled on and was not the last finisher. He finished 2,084th out of 2,087 finishers in a time of 1 hr 47 mins.

Sunday saw the annual Highbridge Jewellers’ Bourton-on-the-Water 10k. The race has a reputation for being a fast course and the addition of its status as a qualification race for the English master’s international selection attracted a strong field. Conditions on the morning were pleasant and clear. The wind over the first half of the course made it difficult to secure the fastest times however the city athletes were not deterred. The race was won by Gloucester AC’s James Denne who, having already secured his selection for the England team could really enjoy his recent form and set out to make the race difficult for his peers right from the gun. James led the whole course to take the win in a time of 31:14, just 2 seconds short of his pb and an impressive 17 seconds clear of his nearest rival. James said afterwards that he really enjoyed the atmosphere and although it was windy and tough going over the first part the support at the end of the course inspired him to drive himself on and take the win.

Next home for Gloucester was Steve Kenyon in 8th place with a time of 33:11, Kenyon ran a smart race adopting a position in the second group on the road through the windy first half before pressing the pace in the latter stages to place 8th and secure his fastest finish over the distance. Steve Millward followed closely on Kenyon’s heels in a time of 33:29, Millward said afterwards that he hadn’t felt at his usual best so was happy to take 15th position and more importantly 2nd in his age group with England selection in mind. 

Eugenio Diz was the next club athlete in an impressive 36:32 running his first 10k in club colours having first cycled the 25 miles to Bourton-on-the-water!

Next home was the ever-reliable Jeremy Mower in a new age group club record of 37:07 and 2nd place in the M55 category. Jason Tilley ran a solid race spurred on by the footsteps of his Partner Tracy Hinxman who worked hard to catch him with 2k to go. Tilley’s strength showed in the closing km as he pulled away to finishing 32:43 with Hinxman finishing 1st in the L45 category and finishing 4th woman overall in 37:53. Haley winters had an encouraging run in her first race of the year to finish 9th woman and 4th in the L40 category in a time of 38.48. Simon Meadows managed an impressive 40:00 finish showing the benefit of some consistent training through the winter months. Simon was closely followed by a rejuvenated Matt Powell finishing in 40:12. Evergreen Arthur Daley showed many a younger athlete his heels as he finished in 44:15 to win the M70 category. Chris Davis ran hard to finish in 45:05. Anna Midgeley struggled on the day but battled on to finish in 46:44 and Emma Stalberg in only her 3rd race in club colours managed an impressive 56:33. Gloucester AC success throughout the race was shown as club athletes won the overall and men’s and women’s team prizes as well as two age category wins pointing towards an exciting spring for the city club.

Gloucester AC Senior Men’s Cross Country team travelled to Leamington on Saturday knowing that another strong performance was needed, to secure a division one place in next seasons Birmingham League. After a season long fight with Leamington AC to stay out of the relegation zone, the Gloucester men also knew that despite a 50 point cushion, it was still all to play for, with Leamington having home advantage on a new look Newbold Comyn course.

Despite Storm Eunice the day before, and dreadful weather on the morning of the race, the event still went ahead, the very inclement weather just adding something a little extra, to an already testing course. Deep mud, very slippery steep descent, tough uphill climb, several ditch jumps, all to be navigated 3 times, on a 10km long course. It was a day for long spikes, and a positive attitude!

In his final fixture as Club XC Captain, Steve Millward managed to pull together an A & B team, with the qualities needed to take on the task. This despite some quality athletes, that for various reasons (injury etc) not available for selection. And after managing to secure (just!) the club tent is storm force winds, the team stripped down to racing kit, and made for the start line, just as a chink in the clouds allowed sunbeams to light the opening leg of the course for all the runners. The assembled spiked clad warriors, hoped that maybe mother nature would at least be a little kinder to them for the next 50 mins. They were wrong of course!

So after a few words from the race referee, and fist bumps with fellow competitors on the start line, they were off.

After the opening leg, that led to the start of the first full leg, which is always a fight for initial position, things settled down a little, with Richard de-Camps, as expected leading the charge for the Gloucester A team. Richard had been one of the leading scorers at all of the previous fixtures, and as always, put in a strong gutsy performance to finish 20th overall in a time of 37mins 26secs

Just over a minute behind in 38mins 37secs, was club captain, Steve Millward. Steve who had been suffering with a cold during the week, was determined to put in a strong personal performance, and said afterwards that despite the tough conditions, he loved the course. With a 39th position placing, against some very good athletes, he clearly did love it.

Next back, just outside the top 50, in 55th position, was the ever improving Junior Male, Marc Barnett in a time of 39mins 10secs. In his first full season of XC with Gloucester, and in the Paul de-Camps coached group, Marc has made significant progress over the winter months, and been a key part in the clubs cross country campaign.

Next back, and not to be outdone by his brother, and coach dad, was Andrew de-Camps in 39mins 54secs in 72nd place, and 4th scorer for the A team. As ever, great to see Andrew running so well again in recent times, after several years with injuries.

Speaking of injuries, Harry Wells, who has also been plagued of late with problems, made a very welcome, and timely return to the team on Saturday. Having failed to get out of London village to the city lights of Gloucester on Friday, due to the storm, Harry made a great effort to get a train direct to Leamington, and his mum sweet talked the coach driver to pick him up at the station on our way to the course. Good ‘Team Wells’ work! And although not at his best, Harry still put in a cracking effort to finish 5th scorer for the team in 86th place (40mins 39secs), even though the last lap must have been a struggle as lack of training started to catch up with him.

Final A-team scorer, and nipping into the top 100, in 97th place, was James Walters. Again, James has run all four fixtures and been either leading B team, or knocking on the A team door at every fixture. What’s more, Mr Reliable, seems to be getting ever more reliable, as he seems to be getting stronger and faster every fixture. This could be down to his amazing baking skills, as demonstrated with track night savouries, and post race cake on the coach.

And so to the B-team, with first back in 112th another Junior man, Finlay Hawkins, from the Arthur Daley coached group. Arthur travelled up to Leamington to support, and see is young charge, put in an other great performance, finishing in 41mins 56secs, which was less than 45 seconds behind James Walters, and an A-team scoring position. Like Marc, Finlay is definitely key to the future of Gloucester AC cross country team success. Finlay said afterwards that he also enjoyed the course, and after some adjustments to his pre-race routine felt strong.

Next two back were Jason Tilley and Luke Hine, in 140th & 141st. A cracking run by both, with Tilley just pipping Hine to the line by 9 seconds. Again, both Jason and Luke has been key to the clubs league campaign this season, providing valuable back up to the A-team, and helping push our competitors placings further down the table.

4th B-team scorer was Lee Smith, who was back after missing the previous fixture, but it transpired in sparkling form. Lee enjoyed a race long battle with a Cheltenham Harriers athlete, which certainly helped push him around to a great time of 46mins 44secs and a 168th finish position.

Less than a minute behind Smith, but never quite able to close the gap, mainly because he struggled to stay upright on the terrifying slippery downhill section, was club committee cross country representative, V55, stalwart, Dave Gresswell. Finishing in 174th position, Gresswell enjoyed the tough course, but conditions were not those in which he naturally thrives, so he was slightly disappointed that he could not at least stay with the pace of Smith in front.

Completing the B-team scoring was Neil Hobbs. Neil only started XC racing this season, so it has been a journey of discovery for him, taking him to muddy fields, hills, ditches and wasteland, that he had never before experienced. Always enthusiastic, and wanting to try his best for the club, it is only fitting that Neil with his trademark last 400m sprint, made the B-team scoring in this final fixture, finishing 207th in a time of 53mins 56secs.

And last, but by no means least, the final club finisher, not far behind Hobbs, in 209th position was Martin Brook in a time of 54mins 17secs. Within the last few days, Martin had heard the rallying cry from captain Millward, of all hands to the pump, and made the effort to turn out for the club, and put his heart and sole into racing in the tough conditions. That’s said, I understand, he actually really enjoyed it.

So, after such a hard season, and four tough fixtures, did the club survive in Division One. Hell Yeah! Of course they did! With an increased points margin over the relegation zone.

They also finished 6th overall in the B-team competition.

After several promotions, and then relegation straight back to division 2 in recent years, the delight on Capt. Millwards face, and our club Chairman (and chief tent carrier), Aaron Bennett was clear to see.

Fantastic result, which means that next season, Gloucester AC will be the only Gloucestershire club to be competing in the top tier of this prestigious league.

There will be work now to build on this success, and push towards a mid-table finish in the seasons to come, but for now, we celebrate a fantastic result.

Well done to all those that raced in one or all of the fixtures, the coaches, helpers, and supporters.

Last weekend saw Gloucester Athletic Club athletes spread across the country competing in various competitions on the track, road and cross country.

James Denne and Gemma Collier travelled to South West London to compete in the Valentine’s 10K which also incorporated England Masters qualification). The course contained a lot of undulations especially in the second half. James led the field of 550 away in windy conditions and soon formed a gap with the help of eventual winner Tom Austin from Poole AC. James managed to maintain second place through to the finish and also first vet 35 athlete in 31.18. Gemma ran a strong race to finish first female vet 35 and fourth overall in 37.14.

Two young athletes, Ella Edwards and Oscar Wilson competed at the England Athletics U20/U17/U15 Indoor Championships at the EIS in Sheffield on Saturday. For Ella, it was first National Indoor Championships and she started the day by coming third in the 60m heats with a time of 7.89, which was enough to take her into the semi finals. In the semi finals she handled herself well by coming fourth with a time of 7.84. This puts her overall 12th out of 34 other athletes who competed on the day.

Oscar Wilson who trains in combined events has had some good performances indoors with PB’s in every event so far this season. In Sheffield he ran only his second ever 60m race and finished 6th in his heat with a new personal best of 8.01. Although he didn’t qualify for the semi-finals, Oscar was really pleased with his time and looking forward to returning to Sheffield in March for the Combined Events Indoor Championships. Oscar’s coach, Matt Holloway was quoted saying “It’s going to be a good season for Oscar and I’m excited to see how he continues to progress”.

Amari Cambridge headed to London to compete in the Sutcliffe Indoor 60s. This was her first ever indoor event for the club and she went on to take the under 13 club record (set back in 2000) with a time of 8.59s in her first race and finishing first. She had another race on the day and went into a mixture age group due to the times she ran and it was a huge challenge for her. She took it head on and came through with a time of 8.66 and coming third in the final race of the day.

Meanwhile, Gloucester AC endurance athletes lived up to their name on Sunday racing the second Gloucestershire CC League in diving rain and gusting gale force wind in Pitville Park Cheltenham.

With the young athletes squad growing almost every week many athletes ran their first or second cross country race with U11 girls first timers Phoebe Golleridge coming 11th in 11:19 and Eve Millward 30th in 13:58 for the 2.2k course. New runners are welcome to join.

Barney Golleridge ran a well paced race to move through the U13 Boys field to finish in 7th in 11:14 followed by first timer Logan Griffths with 23rd in 15:09. Ruth Brook, just recovered from Covid ran a good first lap but tired over the last 2k with 9th in 25:20. Lydia Wang finished very strongly in 15th place with 26:36. Anthony Cruise - in his second race- showed good pacing and again moved though the field in the U15 Boys 4.8k race to finish in 20:33 for 10th place.

The next race held a range of Gloucester AC runners with U17, Senior women and older men competing over 6.4k alongside each other. Charlie Coles was the first Gloucester finisher in 15th place with 29:29 for 7th U17M, Millie Porter was 3rd U20W in 30:16 (28th) Millie Newell ran fluently alongside Seren Jones despite the cold temperature to finish 28th in 31:24 for 3rd U17W just ahead of team mate Seren in 31:29. Rowan Sheard  (U17M) in his first cross country race ran strongly for 36th place in 37:24.

Kim Millward (W40) returned after a two year absence to lead the senior womens and veterans team home in 32:43 for 42 place. The most improved athlete of the season, Emma Jeffery finished strongly in 32:48 for 44th place and just in front of U17 Keira Barry; the two had been passing each other throughout the race. Lucy Jeffery, U20 W and Amber Spackman completed the U20W winning team in 45th and 46th places in 34:32 and 34:47.

Next to finish was the oldest Gloucester competitor in the meeting and coach for many of the athletes Arthur Daley for 2nd M70 in 81st place with 38:08 nearly being caught by Charlotte Hall in 38:16 for 82nd. Emma Stalberg in her first race and using this as race preparation for the Cardiff Half Marathon finished, pleased with her pace in 97th with 41:40.

With most of the senior and veteran men planning on preparing for next week’s Birmingham Cross Country League promotion battle Gloucester did not finish a team in its local league. James Walters was first back over the 3 lap course in 28th with 40:50. Finlay Hawkins was second home in 43rd (42:14) and cross country rep and prolific racer Dave Gresswell 75th (45:47). Coach Martin Brook finished 112th in 53:20 and Chris Davies racing cross country for the first time finished in 116th (54:19).

Last weekend saw several Gloucester Athletic Club members competitions in London, Sale and Staverton.

On Saturday, Ella Grace Edwards raced in London at Lee Valley as part of the London Indoor Games. She competed in the 60 metres in the u17 age group and opened up her first race of the day with 7.84 and finishing 4th out of 7 which improves her personal best from 7.87. This time also took the under 17 60m club record from Catherine Hardy of 7.85. This also qualified her for a second race 60m race of the day where she stormed to another personal best and beating her newly set record. She finished 5th her race with a time of 7.79.

On Sunday, three members of the combined events group and one member of the middle distance group went to Manchester to compete in the Sale Indoor Meet. Josh Robinson competed in the 60 metres hurdles with a time of 9.19, marginally down on his recent personal best. He then achieved a personal best of 5.70m in the long jump and 7.72 in the 60 metres. Kyle Neal competed in his first indoor hurdles race and achieved a personal best of 10.57, he jumped 4.94m in the long jump and ran a personal best of 1.34 in the 600 metres. Oscar Wilson ran his first indoor 60 metres hurdles and got a personal best and an under 15 club record of 10.17, he then achieved personal bests in both the shot put with 8.27 metres and 600 metres with 1.41. Oli Mitchell ran the 600 metres with a personal best and under 17 club record of 1.37.

Meanwhile over at Staverton, it was another cold but bright morning for this years CLC Striders Staverton 10 mile race. A two loop course starting and finishing at the airport Aviator Pub. An undulating route road race, with a small section each loop on a farm track, which this year due to the cold night, was nicely firm underfoot.

Despite the cold conditions, the pace at the front of the race was hot enough, but Steve Kenyon, still managed to turn in a 3rd place finish in 54.39, only a week after his 2nd place at the Linda Franks 5 mile. Next home, and again still feeling the effects of racing a 10k the previous Sunday was Dave Gresswell. Finishing first vet 50 in 1.03.05, and also in a time that gives him another club vet 55 record.

Simon Meadows ran a solid race, and continues to improve his form in finishing 38th in 1.06.34. Anna Midgley, struggling with hamstring problems, still managed to turn in a personal best in 1.11.21 and 2ndvet 35, on very limited training. That said she knows there is more to come, and just needs to get back to some regular training again.

Clive Poole ran a personal best by over 6 minutes in finishing 68th in 1.12.26. Clive, has certainly been training and racing hard over the last 12 months, and is now putting in some very respectable times from 10k to the marathon. Nick Bishop had a strong run as well in finishing 70th in 1.12.49, although he did admit that road races were not his favourite, and would have preferred it being twice as long and off road. Katie Davenport back in a Gloucester AC vest which was great to see, finished 5th senior lady in 1.15.23.

Last weekend saw Gloucester Athletic Club athletes spread across the country competing in various competitions on the track and on road with lots of personal bests and club records set.

Sunday saw 11 members of the club compete at the Linda Franks 5 Mile Road Race. Set on a fast two-loop circuit on largely quiet residential roads and hosted by Almost Athletes, the race commemorates the memory of a popular (and one of the original) members of the club who passed away suddenly many years ago. The highlight of the event was seeing three new club records set, the women winning the team prize and lots of personal bests. In the ladies competition, Gemma Collier won in a new club vet 35 record and personal best time of 29.12. Tracy Hinxman continued her comeback from injury with a sub 30 minute clocking to finish second in 29.54 and broke the club vet 45 record. Emma Jeffery completed the team with a personal best to finish second vet 45 in 33.56.

In the men’s competition, James Denne was first across the line in a new personal best time of 24.59 and a club vet 35 record. Steve Kenyon tracked James for the first couple of miles which helped him break his personal best, finishing second in 26.30 with Eugenio Diz also beating his personal best to finish 10th in 28.34. Jason Tilley won the vet 50 category finishing 15th in 29.29, Simon Meadows finished 27th in 31.03 and Gray Davis was 41st in 32.37. Peter Jeffery broke his personal best to finish 51st in 33.56 with Chris Davis 71st in 35.11.

 Jeremy Mower competed at the Flitchway 12 hour race which he was using to try and achieve a qualification standard for Spartathlon or the Gloucester Elite 24 Hour Track Race. To achieve this standard, runners had to complete 120 kilometres within the 12 hours. Jeremy placed 6th out of the 19 athletes and was 7 minutes within the standard.

Meanwhile two club members, Josh Collenette and Dave Gresswell competed at the Speedway 10K in Chepstow. The event is known for its fast course and at this weekend’s event there was no wind, but it was chilly. Josh last did a 10k two years ago but at this race he improved his time by over 3 minutes to finish in 166th place in 35.43. Josh was a bit isolated during the race, but ran very strongly which looks very promising with more to come. Dave recorded his fastest time since 2015, and a new club vet 55 record to finish in 200th place in 37.23.

Four athletes travelled down to Cardiff to compete at the Cardiff Met GP 2 New Year Non-Thomas Open. In the 60 metres for women, Ella Julin equalled her personal best finishing eighth in the second heat in a time of 8.27. Kirstie and Kelly Constable competed in the third heat with Kirstie finishing second with a time of 8.39 and Kelly fourth in 8.57. In the men’s 60 meters, Ben Reeves ran a new personal best of 7.81and club vet 40 record to finish fifth in his heat. Meanwhile Tina Wickens travelled to Lee Valley in London to compete at the London Indoor Games. Competing over 400 metres, Tina finished third in her heat with a time of 1.10.29.

Gloucester Athletic Club enjoyed a successful day out at the Gloucestershire Cross-Country Championships at the Cotswold Farm Park on Saturday, winning individual and team medals across a wide range of age groups.

The course was already soft and wet underfoot and the heavy rain on the morning of the event made conditions particularly challenging for all competitors, but Ben Robinson made light of these as he raced to a convincing win in the senior men’s race. The reigning Bristol-bound British, European and World Cani-Cross champion was rarely challenged as he stormed to victory by nearly 30 seconds to claim his first senior county cross-country title and lead his team to the bronze medal in the team competition.

Finlay Hawkins has made a big breakthrough this winter and in this, his first senior championship, he ran strongly to place 20th overall and second in the MU20 category. James Walters was next home, just holding off Jeremy Mower by four seconds as the two placed 35th and 36th respectively.

Mower was further rewarded when he also took first place in the M55 age group. Dave Gresswell was another runner to claim two medals as he also took the bronze medal in the M55 age group, placing 54th overall. Clive Poole completed the team, placing 72nd overall. Behind the scoring six, Peter Jeffery placed 74th and Neil Hobbs 76th.

The ladies race also brought success for the city club. Millie Porter led the senior team to the silver medal as she held off team-mate Tilly Ashley as the two placed 22nd and 23rd overall, and 4th and 5th in the LU20 category. Millie Newell placed 25th overall and fourth in the LU17 age group. Seren Jones placed 33rd just ahead of Emma Jeffery who completed the senior team when placing 34th and first LV45. Amber Spackman completed the victorious U20 team, placing 51st overall. Charlotte Hall placed 68th overall.

In the MU17 race, Charles Worsfold placed 5th and Charlie Coles 6th.

Further medals came Gloucester’s way in the U15 Girls race where Ruth Brook took an excellent individual silver medal. Lydia Wang placed 17th and Aliya Hankins 20th overall.

The U13 Boys race saw Barney Golledge storm to victory for his first County title, with Beau Gwilliam and Oliver Hart coming home in 16th and 18th places to complete an encouraging start to the new year for the Club.

Next Saturday sees the Club’s senior men in action in round three of this season’s Birmingham Cross-Country League at Warley Woods. The team currently lies in 14th place of the 16 teams but with the Leamington team just five points ahead of them, captain Steve Millward will be hoping for a strong performance from his team in their effort to haul themselves out of the relegation zone.

Two Gloucester Athletic Club members ended 2021 with representative call-ups.

Gemma Collier has been selected to represent the England Masters W35 team at the Bristol 10km road race later this year. Her selection comes on the back of a series of excellent performances over the distance, culminating in a personal best time of 36:17 at the Telford 10K in December which ranked her 21st in the country for the year.

Race Runner Charlie Price has been invited onto the England Athletics Talent Programme for 2022, specifically for athletes with the potential to achieve national honours over the next six year. It follows her stellar 2021 season when she firmly cemented her reputation as the best exponent of the sport in the UK over 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres, setting new personal best times in each discipline, except for the 400 metres, along the way. Her 800 metres best of 3:08;41 is the best time ever set in Frame-running by either gender in the UK. 

Gloucester Athletic Club members were in impressive form in the final track meetings of 2022.

In the Cardiff Christmas Indoor Classic, Ella Julin and Ella-Grace Edwards went in the 60m event and both came away with new personal best times. Julin lowered her previous best by 0.02 when clocking 8.27 seconds in her heat while Edwards opened up her account with a massive personal best when winning her heat in 7.87 seconds, just 0.02 seconds shy of the Club U17 record. She was the youngest in the final, competing against U20 and senior women, and placed a very commendable 6th in 7.92 seconds. Their coach, Justin Smith, said “I’m very pleased with their performances today as it is difficult to train specifically for the event in the cold and wet conditions. They’re working hard in training, and it showed today.”

Ethan Hood came into this meeting on the back of a hugely successful 2021 outdoor season and went in two unfamiliar events for him, the 300m and 600 metres. He will have been pleased with two personal best performances of 38.74 and 1:27.73 respectively. Millie Newell also went in both events and came away with a new personal best 1:48.03 in the 600 metres and a 46.01 clocking in the 300 metres. Tina Wickens clocked 1:55.73 in her 600 metres heat.

In the field events, Beth Gardiner made her indoor debut in the shot putt and recorded a best putt of 9.06m.

In the Manchester Indoor Meeting, Josh Robinson shaved 0.02 seconds off the Club U20 record when winning his 60m Hurdles heat in 9.02 seconds to back up his personal best 7.79 seconds clocking for 60 metres set earlier in the month.

Dave Gresswell, Jeremy Mower and Arthur Daley all ran in the 3,000 metres at the December Swindon Open Meeting. Daley ran his best time of the year, clocking 12:16.74 for 3rd place in his heat and finish the UK U70 rankings for the year in 5th place.

Mower found himself in another highly competitive heat and after a frantic burn-up over the final 200 metres, ended up in 7th place in 10:26.47, his second-fastest time of the year. Gresswell was particularly happy with his 10:52.04 clocking in his heat as not only was it his first time under 11 minutes for the season but it was also his fastest time for seven years.

In the Gloucestershire Short-Course Cross-Country event held at Stratford Park in Stroud, Finlay Hawkins placed 3rd in the senior race. Charlie Coles placed 11th overall and 2nd U17M, while Dave Gresswell placed 16th overall and 2nd M55 just ahead of Millie Porter who finished in 17th place overall and 1st U20W. Emma Jeffery placed 24th overall and 1st LV45, Norman Ward placed 38th and 1st M50 and Amber Spackman 40th and 2nd U20W.

In the younger age groups, Anthony Cruise placed 3rd in the U15 Boys race, Ruth Brook placed 9th overall and 2nd U15 Girl, Beau Gwilliam and Oliver Hart placed 20th and 21st respectively in the U13 Boys race and Harrison Ward placed 18th overall in the U11s race.

Ron Freeman

Ron Freeman, a long-time stalwart and servant of Gloucester AC and athletics in general, has sadly passed away in Cheltenham General Hospital at the age of 85. Ron had been ill for many months, but the official cause of his death was bronchial pneumonia.

His funeral will take place at Gloucester Crematorium on Thursday 23rd December, at 3:00pm.

Ron joined Gloucester AC way back in the 1960s when the Club used the Fleece Inn at the top of Wotton Pitch as its base, and would willingly and whole-heartedly throw himself into the many administrative tasks that came his way; he was a much-valued committee member of the Club in the 1960s and 70s as the Club became a major force in local and regional athletics.

Ron was present at the early Inter-Club exchanges with our friends in Gloucester’s twin City of Gouda in the Netherlands, though he had his hands full as he tried to control the shenanigans that went on…

He was a highly-regarded athletics official – on the track and in the field, as well as a Starter – and although UK Athletics revoked his licence some 10 years ago (they considered him too old at 75) he continued to serve Welsh Athletics and help out at the Gloucestershire County Championships and Gloucester AC meetings.

Whilst some may have considered Ron to have been occasionally over-zealous in his application of the rules, it was always because he wanted to be fair to all athletes.

In recent years I was made aware of some little-known facts about Ron’s contribution to Gloucester AC and the sport:

Many of you will remember the days when our track was in the Blackbridge field; the throwing circles are still there! There was also a sandpit which was used for the long jump. Ron somehow managed to obtain a substantial length of a rubber conveyor belt and, with some fellow club-mates, he dug out a strip from the field and laid down the first synthetic run-up for the Club!

Back in the 1960s, the 800 metres for women was restricted to seniors as it was considered too strenuous for younger runners. Gloucester AC worked with one or two other local clubs and tabled a proposal that younger ages be allowed to race the distance. Ron presented the proposal to the British Amateur Athletics Board’s AGM in London. In typical BAAB fashion, they didn’t fully support the motion but agreed to Gloucester AC including the event in some of their open meetings for a trial period. The trial was a great success and the BAAB finally agreed to adding the 800 metres to the U17s timetable.

Only last week, I was reminded of the times when Ron would attend County Cross-Country Meetings. He would officiate the races and would then sit in his car and hand-write the results of each race which would then be distributed to the Clubs so that they had the results on the same evening as the races were held. (Try telling that story to the hi-tech specialists nowadays – they won’t believe you!)

RIP, Ron. You were one of a kind and your memory shall live long in the lives of those who had the good fortune to know you.

Gloucester Athletic Club’s senior men produced a fighting performance in round two of the Birmingham Cross-Country League fixture at Northampton, placing 13th of the 16 teams on the day.

The dry and sunny but breezy weather conditions and the firm ground led to top-quality racing and the City squad acquitted themselves well against the very best teams in the Midlands.

The team welcomed back James Denne following an injury lay-off and he showed his class as he took an excellent 22nd place finish to lead the team home. Richard de-Camps turned in another typically gutsy performance as he came home in 57th place, with team captain Steve Millward coming home next in 68th spot. Jordan Evans was making his Division One debut and put in a strong run as he finished fourth scorer in 105th place, just ahead of Alasdair Stewart whose 112th place was a personal best finish in the League. Marc Barnett is still in the U20 age group and in this, his first Birmingham League race, he came home in a highly encouraging 121st place to complete the scoring ‘A’ team.

As in the first round, the team’s reserve strength was evident. James Walters produced another solid run to place 134th, just ahead of another team regular Jeremy Mower who came home in 136th place. Luke Hine is another athlete in his first season of competitive racing and showed he is settling into the squad nicely as he improved 25 places on his first-round result coming home in 154th. Dave Gresswell was next to finish, coming home in 171st place. Clive Poole and Arthur Daley completed the ‘B’ in 194th and 198th places respectively, the latter a remarkable performance given that Daley is now in the M70 age group.

Luke Herbert came home in 201st and Neil Hobbs 207th to complete the Gloucester contingent.

Team captain Steve Millward was full of praise for the commitment shown by the squad, saying “Although we were missing one or two runners, everyone put in a good shift today, improving on their placings in the opening round. We’re certainly putting up a fight in the League.”

Three Gloucester club members recorded fast times at Sunday’s high-quality Telford 10K road race. James Denne continued his good form when he clocked 31:43, Gemma Collier knocked over 30 seconds off her previous best time when clocking an excellent 36:17 and Jason Tilley recorded his second-fastest time ever when stopping the clock at 37:27.

Storm Arwen had subsided sufficiently for three members of Gloucester Athletic Club to tackle the trails of The Malvern Hills on Sunday morning in the inaugural running of The Red Buzzard 20K Trail Race, a 20kms event that included over 550m of climbs on a scenic course around Malvern.

Jordan Evans took an excellent third place with a time of 1:23:35 while Nick Bishop and Clive Poole came home in joint 33rd place in 1:53:36. Evans said afterwards “I was having a solid race and was fighting out second place for the last few miles, but just didn't have enough in the tank and ended up in third.”

The husband and wife pairing of Peter and Emma Jeffery travelled down to Chepstow on Friday evening to compete in the Severn Bridge 5-mile Night race. Emma placed 223rd overall and first W45 in 35:25 for her first age group win, while Peter placed 32nd overall and second M55 in 36:32.

Hayley Winters travelled down to Gosport to compete in last week’s Gosport Half Marathon, run in cool but bright conditions and came way with an excellent new personal best time of 86:02, a full minute quicker than her previous best set seven years ago.

Gloucester Athletic Club’s senior men travel up to Northampton this Saturday for round two of this season’s Birmingham Cross-Country League Division One. The City squad found themselves in 14th place of the 16 teams in round one and will be hoping for a strong turn-out in this fixture as they aim to haul themselves out of the relegation zone.

Two of Gloucester Athletic Club’s leading Masters age group members, Jeremy Mower and Dave Gresswell, travelled to Swindon on Friday evening to compete in the Night Of 3Kms track meetings, six races each with electronic timing that were graded into predicted times to ensure keen competition among the runners.

Dave went in race number four and found himself up against a mix of male Masters and U20s ladies, all of whom were hoping to dip under or around the 11-minutes mark. Starting conservatively, which was a wise move given the quick pace set by the leaders, Gresswell steadily moved through the field and found himself in the leading group of three runners with four laps remaining. Two laps from home, he made his move but was caught and overtaken in the final 200 metres and placed second in 11:01.06, just outside his target time but his fastest for seven years.

Jeremy was in the next race, number five, which included two Stroud AC athletes one of whom was ex-Gloucester AC member, Simon Fortnam. Like his Club mate in the previous race, Mower started towards the back of the field before starting to move through after the opening lap. Disaster nearly struck as he took his eye off the runners around him to check the electronic timing display and crashed to the ground. In typical Mower fashion, he picked himself up and set about making up the lost ground, and with one lap to go he was back in touch with the leading pack. He continued pushing on and was rewarded with a new Club M55 age best of 10:24.62.

Gloucester Athletic Club’s senior men gave a good account of themselves as they returned to the top tier of Midlands cross-country racing after an absence of 11 years in the Birmingham & District Cross-Country League Division One race at Crewe on Saturday(13th).

Under the leadership of Steve Millward and Dave Gresswell, plus un-wavering support from the senior coaches, the Club has been re-building its cross-country team in recent seasons and the pandemic which forced all league competitions to be abandoned in 2020, seems to have strengthened the athletes’ appetite for this high-quality competition, once considered to be among the very best in the world.

Fifteen City athletes were among the 600-plus runners from all the divisions who toed the line in the mild, dry and still conditions, though the three-lap undulating course provided plenty of fast downhill sections and challenging climbs.

Ben Robinson continued his excellent form of 2021, finishing in an excellent 10th place overall, beating many good-standard runners on the way. Behind him, Richard de-Camps and Steve Millward were never far apart throughout as Richard prevailed by the narrowest of margins as he overcame a cramped hamstring during the race to come home in 93rd place with Steve just one second behind in 95th. Andrew de-Camps is adapting to the longer-distance events than the 800 metres in which he specialised and came home in 119th place, with Alasdair Stewart the next to finish in his first-ever Birmingham League race, in 168th, and Owen Parry completing the scoring ‘A’ team in 198th place.

Finlay Hawkins is proving to be one of the young discoveries of the season. He led the senior team home in last month’s Gloucestershire League race and gave further cause for optimism on Saturday as he placed 206th in his first race at this level to lead the ‘B’ team home. Jason Tilley produced a solid run to place 225th while another dependable, James Walters, was next home in 245th. Luke Hine was another runner to be making his first Birmingham League appearance and came home in 326th place. Dave Gresswell placed 325th and Lee Smith 365th to complete the ‘B’ team.

Although unable to complete a ‘C’ team, the Club had more runners offering support. Clive Poole came home in 473rd place overall, ahead of another first-timer Neil Hobbs in 524th, and Chris O’Carroll who first raced in this League in the 1970s, coming home in 650th place.

With the official divisional and team placings still to be confirmed, Club official Dave Gresswell was realistic, saying “There were some extremely strong teams racing today and we must expect to have finished in the lower half of the table but there were some very encouraging performances by our runners, especially by those who were making their League debuts. To complete two teams and have runners in reserve is a great testament to those who committed themselves for this top-quality competition.”

Further afield, Graham Davis travelled to the Canary Islands to compete in Sunday’s Tenerife marathon or, to give the race its proper title, Internacional Maraton Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The very warm conditions and unbroken sunshine were not to his liking, and he found the dreaded “wall” even worse than usual but, nevertheless, he recovered over the closing stages to place 141st in 4:05:43. He said afterwards “The conditions were very tough but this marathon has been on my bucket list for a long time. I’m pleased to have finished.”

Gloucester Athletic Club runners were dominant in Sunday’s Tewkesbury Guy Fawkes 5 Mile Road Race as the 13-strong contingent took full advantage of the perfect racing conditions to produce a host of new age group bests and win the overall team prize to boot.

James Denne continued his long comeback from injury with an encouraging third place, clocking 26:18 on the flat course that took in country lanes around the town. Just behind him, in fifth place, was Jordan Evans whose 28:16 was his best time for the distance. Next home was Jeremy Mower whose 29:29 in 10th place and first in the M55 age group was a new Club age group best, eclipsing his own best by nine seconds.

Gemma Collier has been in fine form throughout 2021 and looks set to take this into the winter as she recorded another personal best and Club W35 age group best when placing 12th overall and first lady in 29:48, taking nine seconds off the previous best set by Janet Kelly way back in 1990. Just behind Gemma was Jason Tilley whose 29:59 earned him 13th place overall and second in the M50 category, his first prize since joining that age group last week.

Dave Gresswell placed 17th overall and second M55 in 30:17. Mike Mansfield placed 22nd overall and third in the M45 category. Lee Smith placed 27th in 31:08, Simon Meadows 31st in 31:17, Peter Jeffery 57th in 34:03, Emma Jeffery 82nd in 35:53 and Dave Spackman 326th in 55:15.

Meanwhile, Arthur Daley had travelled to Barrowford in Lancashire for Sunday’s British Masters Athletic Federation 5k Road Championship aiming to win a medal in the M70 category. On a four and a half lap course on which the runners were battered by gale-force gusts, he achieved his aim silver medal, but only just.

Settling in to track who he thought was the second-placed M70 runner, it was after 2km that he realised that he was fourth so gradually moved forward to gain second place. He maintained that, pulling away to establish a 40m gap until John Hill from Halesowen passed him with 100m to go. Daley accelerated over the last 50m to finish second in his age category in 21.57.

Clive Poole and Nick Bishop competed in Sunday’s Broadway Trail Marathon. As Bishop was on a comeback following a two-year battle to overcome a knee injury, the two decided to run as a team and came home in joint 44th place in 4:59:44, which were massive course-best times of 24 minutes for Poole and 35 minutes for Bishop.

Ben Robinson was the Club’s sole representative at the Saucony English Cross-Country Relay Championships at Berry Hill Park in Mansfield on Saturday and placed 36th on the opening leg in 16:07.

Club stalwart Chris O’Carroll had an eventful time when running in the Belfast Marathon in October. Now running in the M75 age group, O’Carroll started to suffer with a foot injury just after the half-way mark and realised he was going to struggle to finish the event as the roads had been re-opened to traffic, the rain was torrential and there were very few race marshalls or even mile markers to be seen on the route. After hobbling along for several miles a solitary marshall told him that he had just three miles to go, and O’Carroll duly completed the course. Afterwards, he said “The race organisation could have been better, the weather was awful and I crossed the line thinking “Never again!” However, I felt much better when I was told that I had won the M75 cash prize and that my time of 5:56:38 was a new Club age group best.”

Youngsters Jessica Hill, Ruth Brook and Finlay Hawkins produced the stand-out performances for Gloucester Athletic Club at the opening round of the 2021-22 Gloucestershire Cross-Country League season at Cirencester Park on Saturday (30th).

Jessica was the Club’s leading middle-distance performer on the track during the summer and looks to be taking her excellent form into the winter as she placed sixth overall and second U17 in the women’s race, clocking 29:18 on the demanding 6.5kms course that included steep climbs and a very muddy section following heavy overnight rain. Tilly Ashley battled well to place 23rd while Lucy Jeffery scored for the senior ‘A’ team for the first time, running strongly to place 40th overall and secure sixth place in the team competition.

Briony Bishop led the ‘B’ team home, placing 41st overall. She received solid support from Anna Pollard and Emma Jeffery who placed 44th and 49th respectively as the team placed 12th. Amber Spackman led the ‘C’ team home, in 85th place, followed by Anna Midgley (87th) and Charlotte Hall (115th).

Ruth Brook is another athlete who has shown tremendous improvement in 2021 and she produced the best result of her career on the country when placing second in the U15G race, clocking 21:54 for the 3.1kms course. Alice Stalberg ran strongly for 12th place and the team was completed by Aliya Hankins who came home in 25th place as the team placed third overall.

Finlay Hawkins is another athlete to have shown steady improvement during the year both on the track and the road and, in his first senior cross-country race, he led the Club’s ‘A’ team in the senior men’s race with an excellent 40th place, clocking 42:32 for the 9.5kms course.

Having concentrated on his marathon training in recent months James Walters is now turning his attention to cross-country, and he showed his strength and endurance to come home in 60th place, followed by Owen Parry in 70th. Dave Gresswell just missed out on a top 100 placing, coming home in 102nd place, Peter Jeffery placed 131st and Lloyd Andrews 140th to secure 10th place for the team.

John Miklausic placed 141st and Clive Poole 145th to complete the Club’s senior men’s squad. Arthur Daley placed 2nd in the M70 category.

In the U17M race, Jacob Barry placed 8th and Aron Asher 10th and in the U15 Boys race, Oliver Mitchell placed 12th. Beau Gwilliam placed 25th in the U13 Boys race and Jacob Andrews placed 42nd in the U11 Boys event.

After the fixture, Club cross-country spokesman Dave Gresswell said: “This was the first League competition since March 2020 and it was great to be back at Cirencester Park for the first time in many years. It was good to see some big fields in all the age group races, with plenty of Gloucester AC representation, and we were indebted to the officials as always.”

Gloucester Athletic Club sent two teams to compete in one of the most enjoyable team events in the racing calendar, the Midlands Cross-Country Relays, at Aldersley Sports Village in Wolverhampton on Saturday. 

Leading the Gloucester ‘A’ team on the first leg of four 3kms was Andrew de-Camps in a welcome return to cross-country racing six years out through injury. On the notoriously competitive opening leg, de-Camps worked hard on the twisting, undulating course to hang onto a group and brought the team home in 17th place with a time of 20.55 before handing over to Steve Millward, another runner who was returning after a long lay-off. Millward moved through the field well to come home in 12th place with a 20:46 leg, the third-fastest time by a veteran on the day.

It was on the third leg where the action hotted up, as in-form Ben Robinson scythed through the field to haul the team into medal contention with an outstanding 18:31, the second-fastest time recorded on the day, as he came home in fourth place to hand over to Richard de-Camps who is also producing his best performances in recent years. De-Camps ran a typically gutsy and controlled race to maintain fourth place for the team with a 20:07 clocking, the fifth quickest time on the final leg.

Leading off for the ‘B’ team was newcomer Will Singer, who ran a sensible race to finish in 33rd place with a time of 23.58. Alasdair Stewart ran strongly to move the team up to 22nd with a time of 21.45 to hand over to Matt Singer, making his cross-country debut for the Club, with a fine run in 25.53. James Walters showed the strength gained from his recent marathon training to clock 22.32 and bring the team home in 28th place.

Team spokesman Steve Millward said afterwards "We are delighted with 8 this team performance, which is the highest the Club has finished in a regional senior competition in many years. It shows the immense talent and promise that we are developing and bodes well for the forthcoming Birmingham League season, where we will be looking for a positive campaign in Division 1"

There was a strong Gloucester AC representation at Sunday’s Stroud Half Marathon where over 650 runners completed the event in wet and windy conditions.

Steve Kenyon led the contingent home, placing fourth in 1:14:43. Eugenio Diz was making his debut at the distance and came home in 13th in an encouraging 1:19:14. In his first race for two years, Nathan Smith placed 17th in 1:21:12, two seconds ahead of clubmate Peter Haynes in 18th place. Jason Tilley placed 30th in 1:24:03, Dave Gresswell clocked 1:26:16 in 39th place, Anna Midgley 1:38:11 for 134th place, Neil Hobbs knocked over one minute off his previous best when clocking 1:43:20 in 182nd place, Clive Poole and Nick Bishop placed 192nd and 193rd in 1:43:48 and 1:43:52.

Hayley Winters produced her best-ever run over the classic marathon distance when clocking 2:59:36 for 145th place at the ABP Newport Marathon on Sunday, reducing her previous best time by over 90 seconds and dipping under the three-hours mark. Mike Mansfield placed 169th in 3:02:22 and Simon Meadows clocked 3:08:36 in 226th place.

This Saturday (30th) sees the first race of the 2021-22 Gloucestershire Cross-Country League season at Cirencester Park. The competition was suspended last year due to the pandemic, so many runners are eagerly looking forward to the resumption.

Three teams from Gloucester Athletic Club featured in the English National Road Relays Finals at Sutton Park in Birmingham on Saturday, further emphasising the Club’s aims of providing the highest standard team competitions for its members.

Bright sunshine and cool temperatures made for perfect racing conditions as the U15 Girls team started the ball rolling for the City club. Alice Stalberg led the team off on the first of three legs each of 3.88kms and came home in a very credible 44th place of the 70 starters with a 16:03 leg. Ruth Brook then took up the running on the second leg and produced one of her best-ever runs as she clocked 15:10 to haul the team up to 30th place. Aliya Hankins, running way beyond her normal track distance, fought hard all the way to bring the team home in 43rd place overall. 

The U17 Mens race saw Ben Darlow running lead-off in a very competitive event. He ran strongly to place 50th in 13:33 to hand over to Aron Asher who clocked 14:13 when making up two places. Charlie Coles also ran 14:13 to give the City team a 47th overall placing.

The Senior Men’s race was run over six legs each of 5.85 kms and saw Ben Robinson produce probably the finest performance of the day by a City athlete as he placed 21st of the 80 starters on the opening leg with a 17:35 clocking. Jordan Evans had only been able to run in local ParkRuns in recent months as he returned to the sport, but he took over on the second leg and battled gamely to come home in in 63rd place with 20:47. The ever-reliable Jeremy Mower took up the running on leg three and clocked 21:11, while youngster Finlay Hawkins continued his integration to the senior ranks with a 21:28 clocking on leg four. On leg five, Owen Parry continued his return from injury with 21:25 with another stalwart Dave Gresswell bringing the team home in a commendable 73rd place overall with a 22:25 leg.

Club spokesman Richard Blackwell said afterwards: “The sport is still recovering from the effect of the pandemic and it was a huge statement by the Club to show its members that we want to get back to competing again in these big events and to go from strength to strength over the coming winter months.”

Elsewhere, Gloucester Athletic Club’s Simon Crilley placed 802nd in Sunday’s Therme Manchester Marathon in 3:06:14, his first attempt at the distance.

Charlie Price has been in outstanding form in late-season frame-racing competitions, establishing herself as the country’s top-ranked exponent of the sport in every distance from 100 to 800 metres. At the recent CP Sport National Championships at Coventry, she won the gold medals in the 200 and 400 metres before smashing her previous best in the 800 metres by five seconds to win her third national title of the weekend.

Whilst many of Gloucester Athletic Club runners will have been bemoaning the fact that they have been unable to race for the best part of 12 months, imagine the frustrations felt by middle-distance runner Andrew de-Camps who, because of a series of injuries, has not raced for over three years.

Despite suffering set-back after set-back which at times led him to consider giving up the sport, the former Midlands Senior 800 metres Champion has slowly regained his fitness and confidence over the past year, and he finally dipped his toes back in the water when he raced in the Runthrough 10k event at Newbury Racecourse last week. Not only did de-Camps finish in a commendable sixth place, but he also beat his previous best time set over four years ago, with a 35:43 clocking.

His coach and Dad, Paul de-Camps, said “I was really pleased for Andrew after all he has been through over the past few years. It was good for him to get this first race out of the way so that we can all look forward.”

Also racing at Newbury was Hayley Winters who placed 27th overall and third lady in 40:12, her fastest time for two years.

Club members have been recording some impressive times over the 5k distance in early-season road races. Ben Robinson followed up his fine run in the Chepstow 10k, with a fine second place in the Hereford 5k, clocking 14:47. Second-claim member Richard de-Camps placed 9th in 15:08.

At the Prestwold 5k event near Loughborough, Jason Tilley placed 18th in the ‘C’ race in 17:88. Second-claim member Tracy Hinxman continued her fine form, placing 14th overall and first lady in the same race with 17:51. Richard de-Camps placed 9th in the Elite race, clocking 15:28.

This weekend (16th) sees part one of the 2021 Gloucestershire County Track & Field Championships at the Blackbridge track in Podsmead. This will be the first Championship event that many of the Gloucester club members will have competed in for nearly two years and it will be interesting to see how they fare.

The Gloucester club’s 2021 track & field fixture list has been released and sees the Club competing in three Leagues, the Midland Track & Field League, the Avon League and the National Youth Development League. All leagues are in a regional truncated form this year as the organisers attempt to reduce the amount of travelling as the sport recovers from the lock-down. Club Chairman Richard Blackwell says “It’s great that we can offer our athletes a comprehensive fixture list this year after the uncertainty of the past 12 months. We’re all looking forward to see what the summer brings.”

Gloucester Athletic Club members have been returning to action following the widespread suspension of competitions last year due to the COVID pandemic and even though there is some way to go before the sport returns to normal, the athletes are clearly relishing the opportunity to dust off their shoes and test themselves after such a long lay-off.

The Gloucester club set the season off by hosting a series of intra-Club events for its members at the Blackbridge track in April as a curtain-raiser with all of the competitors commenting that it was good to get back into the swing of things.

The first open competition of the season was the Birchfield Young Athletes Open Meeting held at Nuneaton which saw members of Matt Holloway’s multi-events squad making their season’s debut.

For many years, the pole vault has been a weak event for the Club but there were signs at Nuneaton that this could be changing as three athletes set new personal best heights. Joshua Robinson improved to 2.70 metres, Kyle Neal 2.55m while Emily Herron set a new Club U17W record with a clearance of 2.10 metres.

Declan Murray set a new personal best in the long jump of 5.46 metres and there was a new best mark in the 300 metres for Emma Tillott of 45.16 seconds.

There were pleasing runs for Gloucester club members in last week’s Shepperdine Half and full marathons at Berkeley. Steve Kenyon clocked a new half marathon best time of 72:50 in sixth place while Jeremy Mower placed 38th in the full distance event, clocking 3:00.46.

On Sunday (2nd), three Club members travelled to Chepstow to compete in the Speedway 10k, a race designed to get the fastest runners in the south-west together in five graded waves. Upon arrival at the venue, the athletes were greeted with a glorious sunny day with a slight south westerly wind and a pancake-flat course, all of which were ideal for fast times.

Gemma Collier started off in the fifth wave up against some of her local competitors from the newly-formed Western Tempo and various other clubs. Gemma ran an evenly paced race to work her way through the field to place sixth lady in 36:49, a personal best by over two minutes, ahead of several athletes who she had never beaten in the past. 

Meanwhile in the second wave, Ben Robinson and James Denne started off together and ran in a pack of eight athletes for the first 4K before Ben pulled away from James and ran with the remnants of the pack, gradually picking off athletes from the first wave. Ben ran a very fast time to place 23rd overall in 30:43, just 15 seconds off the club 10K road best, which now must be in his sights. James clocked 31:12 in 31st place for a new personal best and Club V35M best. 

At the Mallory Park Spring 10K, Jason Tilley clocked 38:14 for 14th place. Second-claim member Tracy Hinxman clocked a personal best 37:00, the best by a Club member in this age-group.

Next up for the Club’s track & field athletes are the Gloucestershire County Championships which take place at Blackbridge on the 16th and 23rd May.

Additional results from Birchfield Open Meeting at Nuneaton:

Snr Men Declan Murray 100m 12.04; 

U17M Kyle Neal 100m 13.78; Jav 30.84m;

Joshua Robinson HJ 1.45m; 

U17W Emily Herron 100m 14.83; Jav 20.33m;

Emma Tillott LJ 4.30m; 80m Hurdles 14.59;

U15G Ula Mohammed 200m 29.65; HJ 1.30m;

U13B Theo Myles 100m 14.14; HJ 1.35m;

Piers Clutterbuck 100m 15.31; HJ 1.30m;

U13G Bailey Ward 100m 17.51; LJ 2.71m; 800m 3:37.02;

U11G Bethan Holloway 75m 12.69; LJ 2.84m; 600m 2:19.0; Howler 20.24m.